It’s all in the smudge

That’s the little grey smudge on the outer web of that outer most tail feather. I have only seen one photo which has ‘caught it’. Maybe there are others. Can you see it- that little smudgey grey bit? Research undertaken by Ian Lewington many years ago this pattern is spot -on for orientalis. The form meena (aka Rufous Turtle Dove) also tends to have some grey on the outer web, but not quite as extensive as this and some meena (like Turtle Dove) may have completely white outer web. Of course it also has grey (orientalis) and not white tips (meena) to the tail feathers. However Paul Leader warned in a letter to British Birds magazine some years ago that some orientalis could have whiter tips to the tail feathers- that’s why it’s all in the smudge!

Thanks to Rob Smallwood for the instructive photos.

Oriental Turtle Dove, Chipping Norton, February 2011, Rob Smallwood