[texbirds] more on whip-poo-will identification
- From: "Mark Lockwood" <Mark.Lockwood@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 21 May 2012 10:10:14 -0500
On 3 May I responded to a post by Anthony giving me experience is
separating the two species of whip-poor-wills. In his private response
he brought up questions about color morphism in both species that caused
me start digging deeper into the question. I quickly discovered that he
was correct and that both species are dichromatic and there appears to
be a full spectrum of gray to brown birds in both species, although
brown morphs seem to predominate in Mexican Whips and darker colored
birds seem to be more common in Easterns. Which means that flushing a
bird may not allow identification unless it is an adult male and the
tail pattern is seen well. First-year males (fall migrants) do not have
adult retricies and as a result Mexican Whips have a tail pattern close
to that of an adult male Eastern. Features that separate these birds in
the hand do not seem to be particularly useful in the field. Mexican
Whips have much longer rictal bristles and they have slightly longer
wings on average (along with longer toes, culmen etc.).
Oddly enough, I camped at Boot Spring on Friday night and managed to
photograph a gray Mexican Whip-poor-will. An image that the individual
can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/70194759@N05/7241326094/in/photostream
Mark
Mark Lockwood
402 E. Harriet Ave.
Alpine, Texas 79830
mark.lockwood@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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