At last widely recognised as a separate species, American Herring Gull is set to become headline news as birdwatchers look out for vagrants reaching this side of the Atlantic. Keith Vinicombe summarises the status and identification of this sometimes distinctive but often confusing Nearctic larid.

Key featured species

• American Herring Gull Larus smithsonianus
• European Herring Gull L argentatus
• Lesser Black-backed Gull L fuscus

Remarkable increases in populations of Snow Goose and Ross’s Goose across the Atlantic make it more likely that they will occur on our shores with increasing regularity. Keith Vinicombe summarises the status and distinguishing features of these noteworthy geese to help birdwatchers with their identification.

Key featured species

• Lesser Snow Goose Anser caerulescens caerulescens
• Greater Snow Goose Anser caerulescens atlanticus
• Ross’s Goose Anser rossii

Water Pipit, a scarce winter visitor, is easily confused with the closely related and resident Rock Pipit. Keith Vinicombe explains how to distinguish them when out birdwatching.

Key featured species

• Rock Pipit Anthus petrosus
• Water Pipit Anthus spinoletta

Illustrations: Ren Hathway

Slavonian and Black-necked Grebes are superficially very similar in their black-and-white winter plumage, and structural features are important in their separation. Keith Vinicombe explains all.

Key featured species

• Slavonian Grebe Podiceps auritus
• Black-necked Grebe Podiceps nigricollis

Illustrations: Ren Hathway

The Brown Shrike at present showing well in Surrey (14 October 2009), was first thought to be a Red-backed Shrike and once again highlights the difficulty in identifying birds of this species in first-winter plumage.

Variable plumage can make separating Short-toed Lark from Skylark a difficult job. Andy Stoddart has some timely identification tips.

Key featured species

• Short-toed Lark Calandrella brachydactyla
• Skylark Alauda arvensis

Illustration: Ren Hathway.

They may be relatively rare, but Grey or Red-necked Phalaropes can turn up almost anywhere in autumn. Keith Vinicombe explains how to separate these two attractive shorebirds.

Key featured species:

• Grey Phalarope Phalaropus fulicarius
• Red-necked Phalarope Phalaropus lobatus

These two Tringa waders are fairly easy to separate, especially if, as Andy Stoddart advises, you are thoroughly familiar with the common species before trying to identify the scarcer Spotted Redshank.

Key featured species

• Redshank Tringa totanus
• Spotted Redshank T erythropus  

Familiar inhabitants of hedgerows in summer, Common and Lesser Whitethroats can be separated on more than just appearance, explains Keith Vinicombe.

Illustrations: Ren Hathway.

Key featured species

• Common Whitethroat Sylvia communis
• Lesser Whitethroat Sylvia curruca

Our two commonest pipits are very similar and best separated by habitat and song, but there are other reliable differences between them, as Keith Vinicombe explains.

Illustrations: Ren Hathway.  

Key featured species

• Meadow Pipit Anthus pratensis
• Tree Pipit Anthus trivialis

Winter brings Bewick’s and Whooper Swans to favoured wetlands in Britain. Keith Vinicombe explains how to separate these two similar species.

Key featured species

• Bewick’s Swan Cygnus columbianus
• Whooper Swan Cygnus cygnus
• Mute Swan Cygnus olor

Keith Vinicombe tackles the long-standing confusion surrounding two declining species, Marsh and Willow Tits. Once regarded as the same species, the latter is now becoming extremely rare in some parts of Britain.

Illustrations: Ren Hathway.

Key featured species

• Marsh Tit Parus palustris
• Willow Tit Parus montanus

The two bean geese, both scarce visitors, need to be separated from the much commoner Pink-footed Goose. Keith Vinicombe explains how.

Illustrations: Ren Hathway.

Key featured species

• Pink-footed Goose Anser brachyrhynchus
• Tundra Bean Goose Anser serrirostris
• Taiga Bean Goose Anser fabalis

Richard’s and Tawny Pipits are both scarce autumn visitors to Britain, and juveniles especially can be bafflingly similar. Keith Vinicombe explains what to look out for when you find a mystery large pipit.

Illustrations: Ren Hathway.

Key featured species

• Richard’s Pipit Anthus richardi
• Tawny Pipit Anthus campestris

Female and juvenile Common and Black Redstarts on migration aren’t as straightforward to identify as breeding birds. Keith Vinicombe points out the key features that separate them.

Illustrations: Ren Hathway.

Key featured species

• Common Redstart Phoenicurus phoenicurus
• Black Redstart Phoenicurus ochruros

In the June 2008 print edition of Birdwatch (192: 21) we published a letter and photo from Steve Wood concerning a mystery seabird resembling the near-mythical Vanuatu Petrel that he had photographed at sea near the Kermadec Islands, off northern New Zealand, in March 2006. Among other comments, Steve Wood quoted Hadoram Shirihai’s initial support for the putative identification. However, subsequent field experience and research point in a different direction to the bird’s identity.

Here, Hadoram Shirihai provides an updated view on that much-debated Pterodroma petrel:

The rarest member of its family breeding in Britain, Roseate Tern can, with care, be reliably distinguished from the closely related Common and Arctic Terns. Keith Vinicombe explains how.

Illustrations by Ren Hathway.

Key featured species

• Roseate Tern Sterna dougallii
• Common Tern Sterna hirundo
• Arctic Tern Sterna paradisaea 

Yellow-browed and Pallas’s Warblers are not only increasing as autumn visitors but, like Firecrest, also overwintering. Keith Vinicombe highlights the field marks of these three ‘sprites’.  

Artwork: Ren Hathway.  

Key featured species

• Yellow-browed Warbler Phylloscopus inornatus
• Pallas’s Warbler Phylloscopus proregulus
• Firecrest Regulus ignicapilla 

Is it buff, or is it a Ruff? Juveniles of the latter are often mistaken for young Buff-breasted Sandpipers in autumn. Keith Vinicombe helps you clinch the real deal.

Illustrations: Ren Hathway

Key featured species:

• Ruff Philomachus pugnax
• Buff-breasted Sandpiper Tryngites subruficollis 

Among the earliest of the southward-bound waders, Green Sandpipers are sometimes mistaken for scarcer Wood Sandpipers. Keith Vinicombe points out their distinguishing features.

Illustrations: Ren Hathway.

Key featured species:

• Green Sandpiper Tringa ochropus
• Wood Sandpiper Tringa glareola
• Common Sandpiper Actitis hypoleucos
• Common Redshank Tringa totanus