Ring size D.
SEXING
Birds cannot be sexed during our autumn catching period
AGEING CALENDAR
| July | ADULT: Will often have remnants of summer plumage on breast and mantle, most will be moulting wings. Non-moulting adults will have worn plumage with off white bleached wing covert tips. SECOND YEAR (EURING age code 5): Will have some outer juvenile tertials with the white edge spots worn away contrasting with moulted feathers. JUVENILE: Coverts have buff tips. All plumage fresh. Legs never bright, often with yellowish hue. Weight often very light. |
| August | Most ADULTS will be in wing moult with heavily worn plumage, tertials plain light brown. SECOND YEAR (EURING age code 5) birds will have some juvenile tertials with the white spots worn away contrasting with moulted feathers. JUVENILE: Feathers still fresh, with buff edges to covert feathers, sides of tertials with off white spots. We catch a few odd birds in August, not juveniles but not in moult with lightly worn plumage and tertials with dark bars on outer webs, see photo. |
| September | Most ADULTS will be completing their wing moult so not all birds can be measured. Birds that have completed their moult will have off white tips to their coverts. JUVENILE: Buff or white (bleached) spotting on edge of tertials, buff edges to covert feathers becoming bleached. |
| October | ADULTS: Fresh plumage, tertials fresh, often without barring but many have dark bars extending in from both edges. On some birds tips of inner median coverts have a dark sub-terminal band and white tip. JUVENILE: Tertials often slightly worn with bleached buff or missing spots down the edge, sometimes heavily marked. Tips of coverts bleached white, sometimes worn away, giving a scalloped appearance and without the dark sub-terminal band. |
| November / December | ADULTS: Fresh or slightly worn plumage, Tertials fresh, often without barring but many have dark bars extending in from both edges. Legs now turning bright red. JUVENILE: Plumage showing wear, particularly spots on edges of tertials, inner (longest) tertials often moulted to adult type. |
