[obol] Re: photos from Bandon and Coos Bay, Western Sandpipers, Long Billed Dowitchers and Miscellaneous
- From: Shawneen Finnegan <shawneenfinnegan@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: stephaniehazen17@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2013 22:26:36 -0700
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
>
>
>
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Shawneen Finnegan
www.shawneenfinnegan.wordpress.com
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