<Why are people calling the Freeville bird an immature? Well I'm looking at my Sibley guide as I type (I have NOT seen the Freeville bird yet) and he DOES base age somewhat on body plumage. Sibley has "First Year female" as densely barred but always with a white face. The "Adult male" is described as "some are nearly pure white". Adult female and first year male are described as intermediate between the previous two plumages.
Just sayin' ;-)) Marie Marie Read Wildlife Photography 452 Ringwood Road Freeville NY 13068 USA Phone 607-539-6608 e-mail m...@cornell.edu http://www.marieread.com ***NEW*** Music of the Birds Vol 1 ebook for Apple iPad now available from iTunes http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/music-of-the-birds-v1/id529347014?mt=11 ________________________________________ From: bounce-111924362-5851...@list.cornell.edu [bounce-111924362-5851...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Kevin J. McGowan [k...@cornell.edu] Sent: Friday, January 10, 2014 7:03 PM To: CAYUGABIRDS-L Subject: [cayugabirds-l] age of Freeville Snowy Owl Why are people calling the Freeville bird an immature? To the best of my knowledge, Snowy Owls, and especially females, cannot be aged by body plumage. The Snowstorm website, http://www.projectsnowstorm.org/, is asking for photos of flying birds so they can look at molt limits in the wings to judge age. Based on the darkness of the individual I was good with calling it a female, but I saw nothing to judge age. Did I miss something? Kevin -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
