ID Please....

[Joe Senzatimore]

Joe posted this in Avian and I am just not sure of the ID. It is a molting adult. But of what species???

The chevrons on the breast point to Western but the total lack of rufous edgings rules that out in this molt stage.

Help!

Artie

ps: I just read the first line below and see that Joe was not positive....

I hope this is the correct ID. At any rate this is from a great AM at Nickerson with Jimmy and Bob. The high tide floods have left huge puddles for the birds to "play" in and give the photogs some wonderful opportunities as well.
400 ISO f5.6 at 1/500th

[Grace Scalzo]

Come on guys. It's a wading warbler.

[Ilija Dukovski]

Joe,

When was this photo taken? Can you confirm that the primaries (wing tips) were projecting beyond the tail,
as the photo suggests? Was the bird on the larger side? Is the color on the poto correct. Could it be that the bird had buffy tone on the breast? Were the legs black? If yes to all, then please take a good look at Baird's in Sibley and compare to western and semipalm and let us know what do you think.

Cheers, Ilija

[Ilija Dukovski]

Come on guys. It's a wading warbler.

AKA peeping warbler:)

[Arthur Morris]

I started to type this last night but....

As the bird in the image is pure gray, I do not believe that it could be a Baird's. It is obviously a molting adult. (It was photographed in late July.)

It is not a Western and it is not a Least. That leaves two.

In favor of White-rumped: 1-fairly heavy chevrons on breast. 2-a faint hooded look 3-One primary appears to protrude well past the tail feathers. 4-Some streaking on rear flanks.

Against White-rumped: lack of a heavy grey hooded look. The base of the lower mandible is almost always orange... Lack of a prominent eye line.

For Semipalmated: jizz is alll Semi. All black bill with blobbed tip.

Against Semipalmated. In breeding plumage this bird usually has fine streaks on the breast. Semis usually have clean white rear flanks.

Conclusion: it is a fading adult Semipalmated Sandpiper.

[Ilija Dukovski]

As the bird in the image is pure gray, I do not believe that it could be a Baird's. It is obviously a molting adult. (It was photographed in late July.)

Yes, agree can't see much distinct buff here, good to know it is mid molt bird...But Semis on the other hand have much more white look than the bird on the photo, western definitely more white.

It is not a Western and it is not a Least. That leaves two.
Agree

In favor of White-rumped: 1-fairly heavy chevrons on breast. 2-a faint hooded look 3-One primary appears to protrude well past the tail feathers. 4-Some streaking on rear flanks.
Yes, although western can have flanks streaked too.


Against White-rumped: lack of a heavy grey hooded look. The base of the lower mandible is almost always orange... Lack of a prominent eye line.
Definitely not white-rumped.

For Semipalmated: jizz is alll Semi. All black bill with blobbed tip.
Yes baird's I believe should have more straight.

Against Semipalmated. In breeding plumage this bird usually has fine streaks on the breast. Semis usually have clean white rear flanks.
Baird's too, western can have streaking on flanks.

Conclusion: it is a fading adult Semipalmated Sandpiper.
Perhaps, the key is the size of the bird and the "fat" look for Baird's. We don't have that info here.

You are absolutely right about the buff color, if the photo shows the real colors of the bird it cannot be Baird's.


The fun we have, it doesn't get better than ID peeps, juv. gulls maybe...:)

[Arthur Morris]

Joe, if you have another image or two of this bird showing a different bird, please post it here. This one is still bugging me. Thanks!

[Julian Hough]

As Artie concluded it's a moulting adult Semiplamated Sandpiper. For a photographer, he's really pretty good on the puddle jumpers :D

To expand on his statements...The overall grey plumage with rather scruffy upperpart feathers, of differing patterns ,age it as an adult, as does the time of year - July is too early for any juvenile Arctic peep in the mid-Atlantic.

The bill shape, with blob-tip, is typical of Semi-palmated as is the rather grey appearance - not many other shorebirds at this time of year look this monochromatic. One of the strange things is that Semi-ps are SOoo variable in late July - they can be dark, with a heavily coalesced breast, or paler, like this bird so bear that in mind in late July. Here in CT I see some mind-boggling variations!

One feature of adult Semi-ps is that they show fine hair-like streaks along the flanks, particularly noticeable on this bird, but often less easy to see - other, more worn birds may appear to lack these (they may be concealed by wing or flank feathers). This is OK for Semi-p and should not, by their presence, elicit thoughts of Western Sand or White-rumped Sand.

On White-rumped, the breast band is more uniformly grey with more muted streaking, lacking the distinctive upturned "v" of this bird, and typically, on White-rumped, the streaking extends along the flanks in two rather clean parallel lines and never shows any markings on the lower belly.

Hope this helps..

Best,

Julian

[Julian Hough]

To add to the previous post, for those who thought it might be a Baird's or White-rumped, take a look at the wingpoint..it really doesn't extend at all past the tail, which is not good for either of those two species.

Since it's an adult, we can exclude Baird's by date alone - ADULT Baird's Sandpipers, for all intents and purposes, don't occurr in the north-east at all...I have seen only two adult Baird's EVER - one in Florida in mid-April and the other, just last summer, here in CT on July 16th...the latter was my first fall adult Baird's in 16 years of shorebirding. Of course they can occurr, but probability says it's more likely not one. Same goes for ADULT Buff-breasted Sandpipers - rare as **** too!!

Baird's also have a medium-sized bill that is rather straight and characteristically fine-tipped.

White-rumped is more likely, but they have a nice flesh-brown base to the bill and a nice grey-hooded effect, in combination with other features noted previously.

Best to all,

Julian

[Ilija Dukovski]

Since it's an adult, we can exclude Baird's by date alone - ADULT Baird's Sandpipers, for all intents and purposes, don't occurr in the north-east at all...I have seen only two adult Baird's EVER - one in Florida in mid-April and the other, just last summer, here in CT on July 16th...the latter was my first fall adult Baird's in 16 years of shorebirding. Of course they can occurr, but probability says it's more likely not one. Same goes for ADULT Buff-breasted Sandpipers - rare as **** too!!

Good to know, thanks for the info.

Ilija

[Arthur Morris]

Julian, Thanks for your informative comments. I will admit to thinking white-rumped for a bit. And as you tool around you will see that I have made some grievous errors at times

[Julian Hough]

A,

No problem...as a birder all my life with a serious interest in id., I never had a camera with me to divert my attention, so I feel lucky that I have the best of both worlds - a good basis to help id. the birds I'm preoccupied in photographing. I have found as a photographer, and I tend to bird more with my camera now, is that I often get pre-occupied by making sure my camera is:
a) ON
b) I have a CF card in there
c) my batteries are charged up AND
d) I can get the bird in focus

...that I found there's not much brain power left for me to concentrate on the bird I'm photographing!

I dread to think what great birds have passed me by that I probably miss now that I'm making images!

It'd be interesting if we could all be shown a list of stuff that we missed in the field..."Oh! if only I'd looked up at that time...." moments.

bittersweet to say the least!

Thanks for the welcome comments to the forum from everyone!

J