I am looking forward to the data compiled from the Snowstorm study on sex and age of Snowy Owls, especially that supported by genetic data on sexing. I would point out that the sexing criterion mentioned by that site of females having the dark tail band closer to the tip than males does NOT appear to be true, as clearly contradicted by photos of Cornell specimens I put up on the internet over a decade ago at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/crows/snowy.htm.
Kevin From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Kevin J. McGowan Sent: Friday, January 10, 2014 7:03 PM To: CAYUGABIRDS-L Subject: [cayugabirds-l] age of Freeville Snowy Owl Why are people calling the Freeville bird an immature? To the best of my knowledge, Snowy Owls, and especially females, cannot be aged by body plumage. The Snowstorm website, http://www.projectsnowstorm.org/, is asking for photos of flying birds so they can look at molt limits in the wings to judge age. Based on the darkness of the individual I was good with calling it a female, but I saw nothing to judge age. Did I miss something? Kevin -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- ________________________________ No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com<http://www.avg.com> Version: 2014.0.4259 / Virus Database: 3658/6981 - Release Date: 01/06/14 -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
