Following Julian’s question about the Little Eagles, I
notice a couple of responders called his pic as a light morph LE, presumably
because of the pale colour. The true position in my view is that it was
technically a ‘dark morph’, the pair consisting of a light morph
male and a pale ‘dark morph’ female. Which bird appears to be
the ‘lighter’ will often depend on the angle and the light.
In today’s snaps below the male is on the left and the
female is shown in the 2 snaps on the right.
Notice that only the bird on the left has the ‘M’.
As in the books the bird on the right lacks the ‘M’, even though it
is quite pale. The pattern might be represented as follows:
Both morphs have the pale area B. In the light morph
the ‘M’ is completed by the area A being pale (Y being dark in both
morphs). In the ‘dark morph’, however pale overall, the A
area is dark, hence no ‘M’. Note that area Z can be variable,
depending on the angle and light. It might appear palish, as in the RH
wing of the bottom female. In the male it is quite dark in the LH
wing, but a medium shade in the RH wing.
