Snow Bunting/Gealóg shneachta (Plectrophenax nivalis)
Shorebirds of Ireland, Freshwater Birds of Ireland and The Birds of Ireland: A Field Guide with Jim Wilson.
www.markcarmodyphotography.com
The Snow Bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis), is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae. It is an arctic specialist, with a circumpolar Arctic breeding range throughout the northern hemisphere. There are small isolated populations on a few high mountain tops south of the Arctic region, including the Cairngorms in central Scotland and the Saint Elias Mountains on the southern Alaska-Yukon border, and also Cape Breton Highlands.
In winter plumage, both sexes are mottled pale ginger, blackish and white above, and pale ginger and white below, with the males having more white than the females. The bill is yellow with a black tip, all black in summer males. Unlike most passerines, it has feathered tarsi, an adaptation to its harsh environment. No other passerine can winter as far north as this species apart from the Common Raven.
The breeding habitat is on tundra, treeless moors, and bare mountains. It is migratory, wintering a short distance further south in open habitats in northern temperate areas, typically on either sandy coasts, steppes, prairies, or low mountains, more rarely on farmland stubble. In winter, it forms mobile flocks. (wikipedia)
This individual was present along the West Pier in Dun Laoghaire for a couple of weeks before I had a change to pay a visit. A first walk along it's favoured are produced a blank so I had a look over the wall on the north side of the pier and there it was, feeding along the water's edge on the seaweed-strewn rocks. Magic birds.
Snow Bunting/Gealóg shneachta (Plectrophenax nivalis)
Shorebirds of Ireland, Freshwater Birds of Ireland and The Birds of Ireland: A Field Guide with Jim Wilson.
www.markcarmodyphotography.com
The Snow Bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis), is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae. It is an arctic specialist, with a circumpolar Arctic breeding range throughout the northern hemisphere. There are small isolated populations on a few high mountain tops south of the Arctic region, including the Cairngorms in central Scotland and the Saint Elias Mountains on the southern Alaska-Yukon border, and also Cape Breton Highlands.
In winter plumage, both sexes are mottled pale ginger, blackish and white above, and pale ginger and white below, with the males having more white than the females. The bill is yellow with a black tip, all black in summer males. Unlike most passerines, it has feathered tarsi, an adaptation to its harsh environment. No other passerine can winter as far north as this species apart from the Common Raven.
The breeding habitat is on tundra, treeless moors, and bare mountains. It is migratory, wintering a short distance further south in open habitats in northern temperate areas, typically on either sandy coasts, steppes, prairies, or low mountains, more rarely on farmland stubble. In winter, it forms mobile flocks. (wikipedia)
This individual was present along the West Pier in Dun Laoghaire for a couple of weeks before I had a change to pay a visit. A first walk along it's favoured are produced a blank so I had a look over the wall on the north side of the pier and there it was, feeding along the water's edge on the seaweed-strewn rocks. Magic birds.