Adult male: Jörgen Lindberg's photographs
[transcript from Lars Svensson's mail in Swedish to Brevduvan mailing list, a service from www.Club300.se]
"Old male birds of Common Redpoll can sometimes get quite a lot of white on the rump, especially visible when feathers are puffed up as in the picture.
But the rest of the bird show a more typical plumage: relatively dark brown base color, distinct black spots on large parts of the rump,
a fair amount of stripes on the side of body, rather dusky head, the chest is also too dark pink-reddish for a Hoary Redpoll.
In winter old male Hoary Redpolls' usually have very faint pink tone on chest, which in spring, and summer turn more solid pink. The photgraphed old male Common Redpoll will turn
almost dark-red in spring since it already have so much pinkish-red color in winter plumage.
That the bill in this picture looks straight, instead of the more common, curved upper mandible is worth noting.
But a better bill diagnostic is its short projection. The Hoary Redpoll usually have a much shorter bill which gives that bird a more gentle look."
