Roni Väisänen: Ringing in Jyväskylä 8.1.2011

Last weekend I was ringing in Jyväskylä. My friend Antti Pesola has a nice feeding place that maybe hundreds of birds use to come daily. We kept the nets open all the daytime and ringed 157 birds. Most of them were Redpolls (102). Other birds caught were Blue Tit (22), Willow Tit (13), Great Tit (8), Coal Tit (2), Crested Tit (2), Great Spotted Woodpecker (2) and Arctic Redpoll (1). We also controlled one Redpoll which was carrying a finnish ring.

I bought a new camera last week and this was my first try. I don't know much about how to make the best out of this Canon EOS 60D but anyway I'm very satisfied with these photos taken during a poor light conditions. Hope I'll learn more.

Arctic Redpoll (Carduelis hornemanni) ssp. exilipes male.
Based on the shape of tail feathers and the lack of moult limits in wing coverts this bird should be an adult and all the pinkish colours suggest it to be a male. My previous experiences of adult males are a bit different. If this bird really is an adult male, they seem to vary much. Normally adult males are almost streakless and have a very large plain white area in uppertail coverts. This bird had a very limited area without streaking in rump and there was a narrow shaft streak also in the longest undertail covert. It's possible that this bird is a 1st winter male that has moulted all the TFs and GCs. Probably they sometimes moult all the TFs and ageing becomes difficult.