Hornemann’s

Back to (very) northern birds again… We saw three Hornemann’s Arctic Redpolls on Shetland, the first two twitched on Unst (see photos on the wires), while the third was found by Tim Cleeves as he stood about two yards to my right on Fair Isle. D’oh! Still, it was a cracking bird, and posed pretty well for pics.

 

And here’s an interesting ‘north-western’ type Redpoll, photographed alongside the Arctic on Fair Isle. It appeared very cold toned and grey in the field, with heavy streaking on the flanks against a clean white ground colour. Size was pretty similar to the Hornemann’s – ie large!

If anyone has any comment on which subspecies this bird might be (presumably islandica or rostrata), and why, please drop me a line.