Last weekend I travelled to Eastern Finland planning just to do some birding and maybe some ringing also. There was an interesting male Redstart found a couple of days earlier in Joensuu which plumage looked like an Eastern Black Redstart
(phoenicuroides). I went there and caught it but after checking wing formula it was quite clear that this bird doesn't have the wing structure like Black Redstart should have. The bird was singing and calling only like Black Redstart and at least I didn't hear anything that resembled Common.
Emarginations in p6 were not strong and p6 was rather short resulting primary spacing almost like Common Redstart. Ratio between the distance of p5-p6 and p6-p7 was 1 : 1.11. Good for hybrid, as it should be around 1 : 0.9 in Common and 1 : 2.19 in Black. So I consider this bird as a possible hybrid between Black and Common Redstart.
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| Possible hybrid Black x Common Redstart, 2cy male. | | | | | |
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| The breast pattern. |
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| There was a small area of white in lower belly. |
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| There was a slight emargination in p6 of right wing. |
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| In the left wing there was only a hint of emargination in p6. |
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| Primary spacing is more like Common Redstart with rather short p6. | |
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