Bird showed obvious orange tones to the bill, plus other very subtle features related to borealis. Sails were only apparent when aggressive. Useful comments welcome
Hi Kevin, Alison, Paul and co Happy Christmas to you all It has become apparent in recent years that the bill colour of European Eider is highly variable and birds with such bright orange/yellow bills are not that rare in our Scottish and Northern Irish populations. Whether or not these birds relate to true Northern Eiders (Borealis) is unknown and differentiation is made worse by the enormous range of intergradation/clinal variability between the forms.
Comments
Happy Christmas to you all
It has become apparent in recent years that the bill colour of European Eider is highly variable and birds with such bright orange/yellow bills are not that rare in our Scottish and Northern Irish populations. Whether or not these birds relate to true Northern Eiders (Borealis) is unknown and differentiation is made worse by the enormous range of intergradation/clinal variability between the forms.
Lee Evans