ML607898601

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Adult female. First state record? At least a bird showing features of Magnificent, and assuming this is reliable, but waiting opinions from people with more experience with variation in Great and Lesser. Distinguishing features from Great: dark throat coming to small point on breast, making the dark border on the head angle back; white on sides of neck right up to the leading edge of the wing, isolating the dark head (vs broadly dark on neck sides on Great); white limited to flanks and not extending up onto axillaries (vs Great has innermost axillaries white, so white flank patch looks more upswept under wings); axillaries with broader and more uniform pale fringes; orbital ring blue-gray (vs rose red); bill entirely blue-gray (vs tinged pink). Distinguishing features from Lesser: bill relatively large and overall size appeared similar to Great; axillaries dark with pale fringes (vs some inner axillaries entirely white); orbital ring blue-gray; bill blue-gray First seen here 17 Aug, again 18 and 19 Aug, finally well studied and photographed today. It appears at the point every hour or so, (three passes today) apparently making a circuit along the coast, approaching the lighthouse from the north island, then gliding east along the shore.

Technical information

Model

Canon PowerShot SX720 HS

ISO

80

Focal length

92 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/250 sec

Dimensions

1537 pixels x 1086 pixels

Original file size

206.45 KB