'I've been overseas for a good chunk of the year, and very busy workwise for the remainder, so haven't yet even hooked up my big lens in 2015. I did, however, open the nets in my garden belatedly a few days ago (22 Aug), and caught about 100 of the usual August migrants plus a nightingale and a critter that was a complete mystery.
I'm attaching a few photos. It's a small bird, with a wing length of only 57mm and a weight of just 13g. I haven't yet found anyone who has confidently identified it, but the best guess is that it's a weaver, and possibly a streaked weaver. Streaked weavers are from India and not known for trans-continental migrations. Methinks this bird did not get to the Fens under its own steam!' TM
Can anyone shed any light on this one? ED
The following was added 2nd September 2015 - ED
'After a lot of going around in circles, narrowing down the field of possibilities, I think we might have an answer to the identity of that weaver I captured at Dunkirk 10 days or so ago. Josep del Hoyo thinks it is a black-winged bishop and, having looked at some photos on the web, I agree with him in that nothing else looks this similar to the bird in the hand. This species has been previously recorded in the UK, as Josep notes:
Yes I can (I think)… It is a female-type plumage of the Black-winged Bishop (Euplectes hordeaceus). It is an Euplectes for sure, but the females, immature and non-breeding males of this genus can be very similar and somewhat variable; anyway, the intensity of the yellow wash makes me think that it is a Black-winged… Five species of this genus, including this one, have been recorded as escapees in UK… TM
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