presumed heuglini, black sea coast, romania

[lou bertalan]

hello,

yesterday szilard daroczi took pics of this fuscus-type bird. structurally it is so close to a male cachinnans that i immediately concluded it has to be heuglini (which should be passing by now). i know it is common sense that due to variability in fuscus-taxa 1st cycles cannot be ID-ed with certainty. also, this bird bears a very dark head and has some replaced scaps, which is not ideal for heuglini. still i think, such a leggy bird with a cachi-bill and large size (it even outsized nearby cachs and michs!) can only be heuglini. maybe one from a non-tundra population like the ones from ivanovo oblast?
what do you think?

thanks in advance,

lou