I found these feathers on Socheong Island on May 26th 2010. I had found many feathers that year and all were quite easily identifiable- except for these:
Note that the primaries have quite a distinctive shape:
-and the (presumed) secondaries fade into white:
I have been stumped as to their identity for years- they do not match any online wingspreads or field guides for the region. However today I noticed a photo of a Swinhoes Rail on OBC Images(initially linked to on facebook by Mr J Loghry) and it strikes me how similar the pattern is:
Link below:
http://orientalbirdimages.org/images/data/swinhoes_crake_2_gd.jpg
Perhaps other crakes/ rails have something similar?
Can anyone help as to the identity of this mystery? Opinions welcome!