EuroQuiz #4: The Solution

Correction to EuroQuiz #3

First of all, we must offer our apologies to Hannu Huhtinen of Finland who was actually one of only three entrants (together with Steve Mann of the UK, and Miguel Demeulemeester of Belgium) that correctly identified Europhoto 3 as a Wilson's Warbler (Wilsonia pusilla). Hannu's entry reached us late with a batch of answers that were mysteriously held up in our mailbox due to some unknown technical problem. Other entries in this batch included mentions of Yellow Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Scarlet Tanager, Icterine Warbler and Red-headed Bunting.

Therefore, as Hannu also correctly identified the species in stages 1 & 2, this gave a him a clear sequence of three correct answers, contrary to what we wrote in our summary of Europhoto 3. Hannu entered stage 4 as the only reader with a series of three correct answers, and the competition leader.

EuroQuiz #4: The Solution

The bird photographed in Europhoto 4 is bobbing around on a rather warm looking 'turquoise' body of water. The bird in question is clearly long winged with very dark upperparts, contrasting sharply with the pure white underparts and a fairly short, square cut tail. Beyond that, we're given relatively little information as the bird's head is totally hidden from view. Looking closely at the upperparts, the primaries are obviously darker than the wing coverts, tertials, scapulars and mantle. The most visible tertial also appears to have at least some white around the tip and fringe of the feather. The upperparts appear to be brown tinged. This curious combination of features prompted many interesting entries, and for once the most popular entry of Black-winged Stilt (45.6%) was not correct, and in fact was a quite a long way off the mark. This bird was a gull, entries for Baltic Gull (Larus fuscus) at 23.8 % being the most popular, with another 15.4% opting for Sooty Gull (Larus hemprichii). We also received a few entries for Cory's Shearwater and Little Shearwater.

Europhoto 4 was actually a White-eyed Gull (Larus leucophthalmus) photographed on the Red Sea from the north beach at Eilat, Israel on 13th February 2003. The accompanying photo shows the same bird just seconds later in a much more cooperative pose!

Nowadays, White-eyed Gulls can be seen quite easily in the Gulf of Aqaba, especially towards dusk when good numbers can be found gathering to roost on the many buoys and platforms close to the north beach. This remains the most reliable place in the West Palaearctic region to view this attractive species. On the other hand, another Gulf species, Sooty Gull, is still one of Israel's rarest species with only six fully accepted records to date and is not likely to be encountered by Eilat's many birding visitors.

Unfortunately for Hannu, stage 4 interrupted his unbroken sequence of answers. Therefore, since there were no correct entries for stage 4, we will start the challenge of accumulating ten straight correct answers once again.

Stage 5 has been online since 1st November and closes on the 30th November. Can you meet the challenge?!

James P. Smith and the Birdingisrael Team

Contact info

Daphna Abell
Program Coordinator
lotan-programs@lotan.ardom.co.il
Tel: +972 8 6356935;
Toll Free: 1800 2000 75 (when in Israel)