Masters of Mystery - oplossing ronde 6 / solution round 6

OPLOSSING / SOLUTION MYSTERY BIRD 6



De juiste oplossing van ronde 6 is Alpenkauw. Van de 75 inzendingen waren er 10 juist (= 13%). Verder werden de volgende soorten genoemd: Roek (50), Zwarte Kraai (9), Raaf (4), Huiskraai (1) en Alpenkraai (1).

Deze Alpenkauw werd op 6 september 2015 gefotografeerd door Jan Bisschop in Flims, Zwitserland.

The correct answer for round 6 is Alpine Chough. 10 of the 75 answers were correct (= 13%).
The following species were also mentioned: Rook (50), Carrion Crow (9), Common Raven (4), House Crow (1) and Red-billed Chough (1).

This picture was taken on September 6^th, 2015 by Jan Bisschop in Flims, Switzerland.

This mystery bird in this round can perhaps not be conclusively identified from the picture. However, the bird does show a combination of features that (strongly) hints towards Alpine Chough, rather than to other all-dark European crow species:

The mystery bird does not reveal anything of its legs and bill, and this leaves the option open that the bird is an Alpine or Red-billed Chough. Due to the particular shape and arrangement of the grass it may appear as if the right leg is visible and black-coloured, but what is really visible are just black feathers. Red-billed Chough can be rapidly excluded, because the wing tip of the mystery bird does not extend to the tail tip.

The species left for consideration are then: Alpine Chough, Common Raven, Carrion Crow and Rook. A possible way to go about the identification of the mystery bird is to compare many photographs of these species on the internet in which the wing structure is clearly visible. The features to compare are: (i) the length difference between the tertials and secondaries; (ii) the width of the tertials; (iii) the roundness of the primary tips; and (iv) the symmetry of the primaries (along the shaft). The combination of features seen in the mystery bird, most notably the round primary tips, relatively good symmetry of primaries, and the length differences of tertials and secondaries, is not or only rarely seen on internet photographs of Common Raven, Carrion Crow and Rook. On internet photographs of Alpine Chough there commonly is a good or reasonable match with the wing structure of the mystery bird.

This mystery bird was correctly identified by: Arthur Geilvoet, Davy Bosman, Diederik Kok, Edwin Russer, Fedde Welbedacht, Jos Welbedacht, Nils van Duivendijk, Raf Drijvers, Sietse Bernardus and William de Jong.

Ranking Masters-of-Mystery after 6 rounds 

(only for those with 3 or more correct answers)
Rank Name Correct answers
1 Davy Bosman 6
1 Jos Welbedacht 6
1 Sietse Bernardus 6
2 Andrew Holden 5
2 Arthur Geilvoet 5
2 Bas Verhoeven 5
2 Bram Ubels 5
2 Bram Vogels 5
2 Chris Batty 5
2 Diedert Koppenol 5
2 Diederik Kok 5
2 Dusan Brinkhuizen 5
2 Edwin Russer 5
2 Fedde Welbedacht 5
2 Frank van Duivenvoorde 5
2 Geir Mobakken 5
2 George Tanis 5
2 Hein Prinsen 5
2 Jan van der Laan 5
2 Lazar Brinkhuizen 5
2 Lonnie Bregman 5
2 Marijn Prins 5
2 Marinus Dieleman 5
2 Nils van Duivendijk 5
2 Paavo Sallinen 5
2 Pim Edelaar 5
2 Raf Drijvers 5
2 Rik Winters 5
2 Rutger Wilschut 5
2 Stuart Piner 5
2 Thijs Fijen 5
2 Vincent van der Spek 5
2 Willem Wind 5
2 William de Jong 5
3 Axel Müller 4
3 Bas van den Boogaard 4
3 Bas van Gennip 4
3 Charles Martens 4
3 Dick Groenendijk 4
3 Frank van der Meer 4
3 Harry Hussey 4
3 Jan Baert 4
3 Joost Mertens 4
3 Joris Elst 4
3 Julien Mazenauer 4
3 Leo Stegeman 4
3 Mark Edgeller 4
3 Mark Gal 4
3 Maurits Martens 4
3 Nico Hopman 4
3 Pieter van Veelen 4
3 Rob van Bemmelen 4
3 Ruben Vernieuwe 4
4 Alwin van Lubeck 3
4 Anja van der Niet 3
4 Christian Brinkman 3
4 Daan Drukker 3
4 Erik Kleyheeg 3
4 Hans Bossenbroek 3
4 Hans Schekkerman 3
4 Kees Schoon 3
4 Marcel Klootwijk 3
4 Miguel Demeulemeester 3
4 Rient Niks 3
4 Roeland de Wilde 3
4 Sam Gobin 3
4 Seamus Enright 3
4 Wouter Monster 3