Presqui'le Birds

[winz]

Looking for help on these taken last week

1. Black-bellied Plover?




2. Sanderlings?




3.??




4. Black-bellied Plover again?




5. American Golden-Plover?




Thanks for your help.

[Paul O'Toole]

The last one is good for an American Golden plover.

[winz]

Thanks Paul, also thanks for all the tips on getting to Gull Island.

[Pat Hodgson]

It is hard to do shorebirds like this because size is often unclear.
1.  I lean towards black-bellied plover, as it seems pretty bulky and the wings are short relative to tail.  The bills seems a little small though.
2.  Bird on left looks solid for juvenile sanderling.  The two on the right are dunlin, adults molting out of breeding plumage.  Note the much longer and curved bills.
3.  Least sandpiper in foreground, dunlin behind.
4.5. I agree with your ID's.

[thouc]

I lean towards American Golden-Plover on the first, otherwise I agree with Pat.

/Thomas

[winz]

Thanks Pat and Thomas.  The bird in the first picture was about 12 feet away from the American Golden-Plover in picture #5, but there were other Black-bellied Plovers in the general area.  Other than in flight with the black armpit of the Black-bellied Plover, what's the best way to distinguish between the juveniles of each species?

[thouc]

Black-bellied Plover is larger (only useful when comparing the species next to each other), has longer, thicker bill, overall gray-scale colouring (Golden-Plover has more brown tones) and usually less prominent eye-brow. Nothing is definitive on its own, but together you can usually determine the species without seeing the armpit.

/Thomas

[winz]

Thanks Thomas.  I'm slowly learning the field marks for shorebirds.  I'm going to have to spend some more time observing them.