Mipits

On Wednesday I tried my luck with Meadow Pipits and managed to catch, study and ring 7 of them. As the books say, young birds undergo a partial post-juvenile moult which may include some greater coverts, median coverts and tertials. Here are a couple of examples. Firstly a juvenile which hasn't moulted any of these:

And then one which has retained greater coverts 1-6, 9 & 10 but replaced 7 and 8. This bird has also replaced the innermost median covert but the rest are old (the large 'tooth' of the juvenile feathers shows up particularly well) as well as the smallest tertial feather.
Mick P