I've taken some photos of the Redpolls at Saddington Park is Mississauga this winter. I am not an expert birder and I just believed they were all Common Redpolls. Recently, Luc Fazio reported a Hoary, however, and all kinds of photographers have been down visiting since then.
I decided to take some new photos and look through my old ones, in case. I have tried to understand the details provided on Jean Iron's excellent website at
http://www.jeaniron.ca/2015/redpollsRP.htm . I'm still confused. So I'm hoping those of you who are expert birders can quickly confirm the following photos.
This one is a Common Redpoll, right?
[attachment=2:uccbemd6]CommonRedpollZ.jpg[/attachment:uccbemd6]
Now these two photos of the same bird leave me questioning if it might be a Hoary. I really don't know enough to know, though. Opinions?
[attachment=1:uccbemd6]RedpollA.jpg[/attachment:uccbemd6]
[attachment=0:uccbemd6]RedpollB.jpg[/attachment:uccbemd6]
Now this one is probably inconclusive. Is this a Common? Oops, I'll have to post it in another note as there is a 3 photo limit per note. Please bear with me and look at Part 2. Thanks!
For what it's worth, I would never report a Redpoll to eBird as anything but a Common without confirmation from someone who understands the differences!