Looking at those blogs Martin,
You are picking out the odd bird on those particular blogs with plain eyes
when the majority on the same blogs show buff eyes.
My money is on those odd individuals being subadult or subordinated adult or
whatever, a bit like what happens with Corvids, start out dark, become
pale(even blueish) imms, before eventually becoming breeding adult.
Before you ask, I haven't any research to back this up.
But if the majority of def adult East coast Scrubwrens are showing buff
eyes and you have a handful that don't fit, you don't ignore the majority
view, you look for an explanation as to why the occasional bird doesn't fit.
That Mornington Peninsula bird in particular looks good for an immature.
Looking at the Spotted types, same deal, go through all the photos you can
find and then tally up what the majority appearance is for the adults,
rather than picking out the odd variant.
And the see if the add variants can be accounted for as imms, non-breeding
adults or whatever.
It's the appearance of the overwhelming majority of adults that count in
this comparison.
Cheers Jeff.
-----Original Message-----
From: Birding-Aus On Behalf Of
Martin Cake
Sent: Wednesday, 9 May 2018 12:08 PM
To: Graeme Chapman <>
Cc:
Subject: Scrubwrens
G'day Graeme
Yes interesting puzzle isn¹t it.
I guess we can¹t say whether DNA will have the last word, until it has the
last word!
As for some images of live White-broweds that don't fit the pattern, here¹s
a few examples found from a quick search:
A bird with grey-green eyes at Greens Bush, Mornington Peninsula
https://maltpadaderson.com/2015/01/03/1st-jan-2015-and-a-quiet-start-with-p
hotography-at-greens-bush/
Some weakly-spotted birds with pale grey-green eyes at Cleland Wildlife
Park, in the Mt Lofty ranges
http://tcphotosdotnet.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/cleland-blitz.html
A non-spotted bird with a pale grey eye near Gluepot
http://www.wilddogphotographics.com/page39/page2/
A male with a grey-green eye near Minghorn Gap NSW
https://mdahlem.net/birds/17/wbrscrwr.php
A neutral grey eye from Narrabeen NSW
https://www.birdforum.net/opus/index.php?title=White-browed_Scrubwren&oldid
=163362
<HR>
<BR> Birding-Aus mailing list
<BR>
<BR> To change settings or unsubscribe visit:
<BR> http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
</HR>
<HR>
<BR> Birding-Aus mailing list
<BR>
<BR> To change settings or unsubscribe visit:
<BR> http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
</HR>
|
