Mountain Wheatear (Oenanthe monticola) Male pictures from wildlife photos on webshots

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Uploaded by: joemorlan

In album: South Africa - Birds and Wildlife -...

In Webshots channel: outdoors
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Date uploaded: Aug 16, 2007

17 July 2007 - Boksburg near Johannesburg, South Africa This really doesn't look very much like the pictures in my field guides and other references, but I believe it is a gray morph male Mountain Wheatear. This species is polymorphic with males having both black and gray morphs and considerable variation within each morph. This individual was associating with the female in the previous photo and was the same size and shape as that bird. Here, the white on the lesser coverts, supposedly a key field-mark, is concealed by loose scapular feathers. This is also presumably the nominate race O. m. monticola with three other races found in Namibia and Angola. As always, corrections are welcome. Olympus D-550z / Nikon FieldScope 3 / 30XWA (hand-held - no adapter).