Strangers from a train

I mentioned the other day that I'd been thinking about the plumage features small birds use to keep track of their fellows in flight, like the roundels and similar emblems used by military aircraft. The idea is to try and use these features to identify the birds in the sort of fleeting glances you get from a moving vehicle. It's a miserable and wet sort of a day so I thought I'd explore the idea a bit more with some of the small birds likely to be seen in passing.

Before we do anything: a lot of the small birds you see from a moving vehicle will be unidentifiable whatever you do. With luck and experience you'll be able to shift the odds in your favour a bit but don't get stressed out about the ones that got away. If it was easy you wouldn't be playing the game.

I had intended illustrating this with "bad" photos of small birds from a distance, the sort of view you're likely to have, but that's proven easier said than done. It's a project in progress, I'll come back to it sometime. You'll have to do with my inartistic attempts at illustration.

House sparrows appear uniformly brown at a glance, the males darker than the females. You might catch the white wing bar, most times you won't. You'll usually pick up sparrows by their size, shape and that 90° jink as they fly into cover. Tree sparrows look more contrasty but more often than not the only way you'll know for sure is if the light catches the bright chestnut cap.

Goldfinch

With fair light and luck goldfinches are very easy to identify, that thick yellow band on a blackish background is diagnostic.

Greenfinch

Greenfinches are chunky and very often look uniformly grey at a glance. Those bright yellow flashes to the wings and tail are the clue to the ID.

Chaffinch

That big white flash on the upperwing says chaffinch. The white tail margins make it appear long.

Linnet

Linnets and meadow pipits should be dead easy to tell apart, right? From a moving vehicle they both tend to be blink and you've missed it and a lot of your passing mysteries will be one or other. The white panel in the flight feathers of the linnet is diagnostic if you can see it. 

Meadow pipit

Mipits tend to look dark and spindle shaped and the white tail margins can jump out at you. 

Twite

Twites are very hard work at any distance, close to any identification is likely to be by what you don't see.

Siskin

Siskins and redpolls add an extra layer of difficulty by not often being out in the open. You'll be lucky to see the combination of goldfinch-like primrose yellow wing bar and greenfinch-like yellow tail flash of a siskin. If you identify a redpoll at all from a glance it'll be because of the short, blue tit-like shape.

Most buntings look long in flight, the white tail margins exaggerating the length. 

Male reed bunting

The black on the head of a male reed bunting is often the first thing you register. A male yellowhammer is obvious, telling a female yellowhammer from a female reed bunting on a passing glance is usually dependent on its being in the company of a male. 

Corn bunting

A corn buntings are bigger and heavier looking than a greenfinch and at a glance look featureless. Skylarks are a similar size and can look chunky but they're all sharp corners. You won't have time to see if the bunting's legs dangle in flight like the textbooks say and more often than not they'll be tucked away like any other small bird.

Bullfinch

Last but not least, the combination of inky blue black tail and wings and white rump shout out bullfinch every time.