I sent the following message to the BC Vancouver Birds group after a female
McKay's Bunting was photographed by Len Jellicoe at the Iona Jetty in
Richmond, BC on March 2.


Great shot Len. I'm willing to go on record as having called the bird in
your photo a subadult female McKay's Bunting. It's almost certainly the
bird that was attracting so much attention in January.

A few sharply-pointed scapular centers can be seen and identify the bird as
a female.

For the sake of completeness, I should mention that individuals of the the
Aleutian race of Snow Bunting, Plectrophenax nivalis townsendi, are paler
(particularly in the rump) than those of P. n. nivalis. However townsendi
is probably resident within its range, and unlike in the bird in Len's
photo, dark markings extend partway onto the back in townsendi.

The bird in Len's photo differs from female Snow Bunting in showing the
following:

- blackish feathers of capital tract restricted to forecrown
- mantle has streaked appearance
- back and rump unmarked
- greater coverts white
- primary coverts white with dark terminal spots
- secondaries lack dark markings

All of these features are consistent with female McKay's Bunting, and the
apparent lack of any dark whatsoever in the back and greater coverts
(tertial coverts excluded) is evidence that the bird is not a hybrid.

I agree with Derrick that the photos taken of this bird are probably rare
and should be preserved. These include not only the ones stored on the BC
Vancouver Birds website but also those taken by Tom Shermer and Mike Yip.
One way of preserving the photos would be to use them, with permission, in
an ABA-style photo-essay on separating Snow and McKay's buntings. As I'm
convinced that Dennis Paulson photographed another female McKay's Bunting at
Harrison Hot Springs in November, I believe that his photos of that bird
should be included in any compilation.

I don't know if we'll get any more information from Dan Gibson of the
University of Alaska Museum of the North. It's been about two months since
I first asked him if he could elaborate on his identifications of these
birds, and I still haven't heard from him.

Regards,
Jason Rogers
Banff, AB
hawkowl at hotmail.com