Stephanie: Dowitchers can be very difficult to separate in adult plumage. The one plumage they are easy to tell apart is when they are juveniles. In this case I have to disagree with your conclusion that these are Long-billed Dowitchers. They are all juvenile Short-billed Dowitchers, the expected coastal dowitcher. Identifying shorebirds begins with aging them. The birds in your photos are all juveniles. They are in exceptionally fresh plumage, with smaller coverts and mantle feathers on the wings that are crisply colored, that all line up very neatly with each row easy to distinguish, plus are buffy below without dark bold barring or spotting along the flanks. Once you age them by far THE way to tell juvenile dowitchers apart is to determine the pattern of the tertials--the innermost long secondaries that cover the primaries. These feathers lie on top of the lower back covering the primaries (see the front of a field guide for bird topography if one is unfamiliar with where these are). See page 19 of Sibley for example. Short-billeds have bold gold to orangish markings on the interior of these tertial feathers, which can be as little as a squiggly lines parallel to the length of the feather, but usually is quite barred in addition to the rusty edge to the tertials on our western subspecies of Short-billed L. g. caurinus. The tertials on a Long-billed are plain grayish brown with a narrow pale to rust edge. If you can't see this feature then you might look at other features, but if they are barred/tiger striped they are Short-billed. The width of the tail barring is known to be a secondary field mark because it there is overlap between the species. The article that you mentioned that appeared in Birding mainly refers to adult dowitchers. And depending on who you talk to, the loral angle that they discuss as being a new feature to distinguish adults, is not embraced by all. I hope that helps. Best regards, Shawneen Finnegan On Aug 27, 2013, at 10:03 AM, Stephanie Hazen wrote: > We spent last week in Bandon and Coos Bay, and attended the Shorebird > Festival. > > Below are some photos taken during the trip. > > Stephanie Hazen > > Ray Temple > > > > >> https://picasaweb.google.com/101700670573128910486/BullardSBeachCapeAragoMellicomaMarshSJettyBandon?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCO79wuqi1NbBjAE&feat=directlink >> >> >> >> https://picasaweb.google.com/101700670573128910486/SECONDGROOMINGLBD?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCLHfq8uQ3_WJHw&feat=directlink >> >> >> https://picasaweb.google.com/101700670573128910486/FEEDINGLBD?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCKXWzKr2we3UqgE&feat=directlink > > > > OBOL archives: www.freelists.org/archive/obol > Manage your account or unsubscribe: //www.freelists.org/list/obol > Contact moderators: obol-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > > Shawneen Finnegan www.shawneenfinnegan.wordpress.com