I bedste BT stil ruller phyl.dk gardinerne op for dansk feltornitologi 2002's svar på Farum-sagen. Det drejer sig naturligvis om Tane Sø stæren - for fremtiden kaldet
Farumstæren, af mange bestemt til Danmarks og Nordeuropas første
Ensfarvede Stær.
Medlem af det spanske Sjældenhedsudvalg Ricard Gutiérrez (RG), som tilfældigvis er i gang med at færdiggøre en artikel om feltbestemmelse af
Stær og Ensfarvet Stær til det franske fugleblad Ornithos, har været så venlig at sende en kommentar til phyl.dk vedrørende bestemmelsen af Farumstæren samt fotos af Stær og Ensfarvet Stær til at illustere sine synspunkter.
Der er tankevækkende læsning, og det danske Sjældenhedsudvalg kan næppe tillade sig at overse RG's kommentar.
Ricard Gutiérrez skrev:
I send you attached a series of
eight photos taken by me at Juncosa, Lleida, Spain on 29.3.2002 (sturnus 1 to 6) and 17.2.2002 (sturnus 7 and 8) (fotos under Farumstæren, red.). They show both Spotless Starlings (ad. male most of them) and Common Starling. Notice that these days Common Starlings have acquired further breeding plumage and some birds don't either have any spot or very small spots in the undertail coverts. I look forward to obtain more photos next week and if I obtain any interesting one I'll let you know. I've studied your bird photos and I've shown digital colour prints of them to two reputated ornithologists from Lleida, the main area in NE Spain for unicolor (Ensfarvet Stær, red.): David Giralt and Gerard Bota. All of us think your bird is an (unspotted) Common Starling.
Basically, it's a matter of structure and wrong green shine (and an overall too shining -glossy-bird) plus an aspect of feathering that does not fit the one male starling should have. In
sturnus 1 see the overall aspect with pink bubble-gum legs, without any kind of red or orange, and the shape of mantle and back feathers plus those of the bib (strubefjer, red.). The bird lacks any shine and this is the aspect an unicolor has. Furthermore, note the rather chunky shape, slightly different from that of vulgaris (Stær, red.). In
sturnus 2 you have another male with a male vulgaris in late March, being this a still rather spotted bird. Notice the green gloss of the vulgaris. There is an additional character I have to check in the future for telling these species but it seems to me that unicolor has a slightly curved culmen (upper mandible) while that of vulgaris would be rather straight. In one of your photos the bird appears with a very straight bill.
Sturnus 3 and
sturnus 4 depict the shape and strong lack of green tones in unicolor male. Notice also the aspect of back, due to length of feathers. Again note pink legs and slightly downcurved culmen.
Sturnus 5 allows comparison between vulgaris and unicolor. Notice the difference in what feathers respect and also in green shine extent. Bib feathers are longer in unicolor, a feature also visible in
sturnus 6. Even out of main breeding season (
sturnus 7 and
sturnus 8) the birds do not show any of those green reflexes that your bird has, despite leg colour is not so bright.
Hope all these material interests you. All in all, if not watched and analyzed properly these two species can be tricky, but if being a bird submitted to my RC (Sjældenhedsudvalg, red.), with the information available I could not accept it into our list.
Yours,
Ricard Gutiérrez
www.rarebirdspain.net
English version