The Black Redstart.......

Last week we published pictures of the Copeland Black Redstart and asked if you could age and sex the bird. Many thanks for David Galbraith in guiding us through this!

Note the rounded and relatively fresh tail feathers, which are also quite broad.  

 The lack of a white 'panel' on the wing rules out adult male.  

We know it is an adult on the tail, plus the completely uniform nature of the wing
feathers, all relatively freshly moulted.  A bird born this year would have
flight feathers unmoulted and almost always some greater coverts unmoulted,
thus showing contrast.  Hence, it is an adult female, almost by elimination of
everything else. An immature should also have a dark edge (up to 9mm)
on the central tail feathers, whereas this bird clearly has uniform central
tail feathers. 

There it is. If only all passerines were as easy as this!!