Help with dowitcher ID and age?

[Bruce Enns]

I am very much a shorebird amateur simply because I don't get to see very many. I have been enjoying the shorebird ID questions posted in the last couple of days because they relate directly to an identification that I've been trying to nail down...any help would be much appreciated.

I think this is a Long-billed Dowitcher, based on:

Location: (Liberty Lake, near Spokane, Washington)
Call: 'keek'
Tail bars: visible tail-feather has thicker black that white bars.

I think, but am by no means sure, that it is a juvenile bird based on the slightly worn, but more regular than splotchy plumage.

Image taken Oct 11, 2009.

Thanks for any help you can provide!!

Cheers!
Bruce

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Bruce,

Mazel tov. You go to the head of the class. This is a classic worn juvenile long-billed. Your analysis is spot on. The only thing that you missed is that the tertials are indeed the clinchers here: they have fine rufous edging and no internal markings. Even worn juvie short-billed will have internal orangish markings on these feathers.

[Arthur Morris]

And the keek call and the broad black/narrow white tail bands are perfect for LBDOW. And yes to worn but regular not spotchy patterning above.

[Bruce Enns]

Thanks very much Artie!

Cheers!
Bruce

[Phil Battley]

There's another feature of juvenile shorebirds that can be obvious at times, that their scapulars are generally smaller than those of adults, so don't cover as much of the bent wing as in adults. Does anyone have shots of equivalent ads they could post for comparison?

Phil

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks very much Artie! Cheers! Bruce

You are most welcome sir. This is another juvie that I was hoping to see on Long Island and missed so it is good to see this one here.

[Arthur Morris]

There's another feature of juvenile shorebirds that can be obvious at times, that their scapulars are generally smaller than those of adults, so don't cover as much of the bent wing as in adults. Does anyone have shots of equivalent ads they could post for comparison? Phil

Phil, Please see the other Long-billed Dow thread here and scroll down to the image with the colored dots on it, and then do the same thing here, marking at least the feathers that you think are the scaps. This could turn out to be quite educational for all of us.

[Phil Battley]

Artie, can do, once I figure out how to get permission to post attachments... That's the one thing I seemingly cannot do.

Phil

[Arthur Morris]

Artie, can do, once I figure out how to get permission to post attachments... That's the one thing I seemingly cannot do. Phil

Contributors may post one image every forty-eight hours, members one every twenty-four.

You can learn how to post an image here:

http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...read.php?t=946

[Phil Battley]

Thanks, but my problem is this:

Posting Rules
You may post new threads You may post replies You may not post attachments You may edit your posts

Is there some step I need to do to get free rein of the forum?

Phil

[Arthur Morris]

Phil, If you are logged in when you are getting that, please post your question here:

http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...splay.php?f=87

The back end of this place is not my department

James Shadle will likely be able to help you.

[Dave Phillips]

Artie, can do, once I figure out how to get permission to post attachments... That's the one thing I seemingly cannot do.

Phil

I see you are listed as a "participant" and not a "contributor/BPN Member".
Have you paid the annual membership?

Contributor Members can upload images

[Phil Battley]

Gotcha - thanks.

[Phil Battley]

Right - set now.

Blue = tertials
Red = scapulars
Yellow = greater coverts
No secondaries visible, and only a peek of primaries.

Phil

[Ilija Dukovski]

Phil,

How about the one I marked green. Is that one tertial too?
How about the one I marked pink. I'd say sub-scapular. Am I right?

[Phil Battley]

Hi Ilija,

I suspect the green one could just as easily be claimed as the innermost secondary. I think I'd need to have the bird in the hand and count from 1-10 then decide...

As for subscapulars, I've known that they exist but have never really been sure of just where they are, so your guess may be as good as mine. :-)

Cheers, Phil

[Ilija Dukovski]

Hi Ilija,

I suspect the green one could just as easily be claimed as the innermost secondary. I think I'd need to have the bird in the hand and count from 1-10 then decide...

As for subscapulars, I've known that they exist but have never really been sure of just where they are, so your guess may be as good as mine. :-)

Cheers, Phil

Phil,

Please don't ask me where (have no idea or reference) but I read that sub-scapulars are elongated or modified
scapulars. Again an arbitrary definition, but the point is I think that they look very much like tertials but are attached to the shoulder/scapula not the upperarm/humerus. You can imagine what a nice discussion we can have about which is an inner tertial and which is sub-scapular in dowithers and other shorebirds. If you do your dissection and find out please let us know:)

[Arthur Morris]

Phil,

How about the one I marked green. Is that one tertial too?
How about the one I marked pink. I'd say sub-scapular. Am I right?

Hi Ilija,

Could you please let us know which feather tracts are indicated by the variuos colored dots. Thanks.

[Ilija Dukovski]

Hi Ilija,

Could you please let us know which feather tracts are indicated by the variuos colored dots. Thanks.

Hi Artie,

I agree with Phil on this one and add two more:

Red=scapulars
Yellow=coverts
Blue=tertials
Green=either elongated secondary or tertial. Not sure what is correct.
Pink=sub-scapular

Do you agree?

[Bruce Enns]

Okay, forgive me for beating this to death, but I now have to know if I've got this figured out...according to my Sibley's shorebird illustration, this is the way I map out the feathers on the LBDO from a more illustrative angle.

Is this right?

Thanks!
Bruce

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Bruce, Beating it to death is not the same as getting it right. I believe that you are right on with your color dotting. I will try to get Julian Hough to confirm that.

The thin rufous edgings of the tertials are worn to whitish grey but do note the total lack of any internal markings in the tertials as is typical of long-billed. Short-billed juvenile tertials are either barred or striped internally.

[Arthur Morris]

Bruce, How do you get the perfect circles???

[Bruce Enns]

Thanks Artie. Perfect circles? PS paintbrush tool, hardness 100, brush size 25 pix (which would of course depend on the size of the image, these were done before downsizing to the 96 dpi image).

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Bruce. It's the Hardness that does it! And YAW.

Where did you come up with 96 dpi???

[Bruce Enns]

Sorry Artie! I meant ppi, not dpi, but regardless, it was some guy named Arthur Morris...:D

And I quote:


Over the years, most folks have been amazed by the quality of my J-PEGS; they looked great for years while coming in under 50kbs. And it takes me two seconds to "prepare" them from an optimized TIFF file. How can that be? I use an action as Robert mentions above.

I remember struggling to learn how to create an action until some kind soul explained it to me very carefully step by step. Below is an adapted excerpt from both our Digital Basics File and from The Art of Bird Photography II. You can learn more about each of these right here in this Forum: http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ead.php?t=5598

Here is exactly how to create an action to be used to prepare an image file for BPN. First, open the image in Photoshop CS3. Next, click on the Actions tab that is usually adjacent to the History box tab. Then, click on the Create New Action icon that is located on the bottom of the window just to the left of the Garbage Can icon. The New Action Window will open. First, type a name for your action, perhaps “BPN j-pegs” into the Name: box. Then arbitrarily choose and check a function key that will be used to initiate the action; I use F2. Lastly, as a reminder, type the function key at the end of the name of the action. If you have chosen F2 for your BPN j-pegs action, the text in the Name Box should read “Slide Show j-pegs F2. ” Then click Record. (When you do this, the Begin Recording icon at the bottom of the window turns red indicating that the operations that you perform will be recorded as part of the action.)

You are now ready to begin recording the various steps in your action. We will consider a 16-bit image Tiff file with layers as our starting point. First, click on Layers/Flatten Image, then on Image/Mode/8-bit. Then click on Image/Image Size and change the resolution to 96 pixels per inch. After making sure that that the Resample Image box is 800 in the Width box and 800 in the height box. This will assure that both your horizontals and your verticals will be 800 pixels on the longest side. Then click on Image/Mode/Convert to Profile and select sRGB from the drop-down menu if it does not appear in the Destination Space Profile box. ((Note: with some master files all of the above operations may not be needed, but it does no harm to have them included in the action in these cases.)

Next we sharpen the image. With 800 pixel images to be used for the web we do two rounds of sharpening. The first round is at 300/.3/1.This is followed by another round at 100/.2/0. These generic settings usually do a great job with digital images; some scanned film images may require an additional round or two of sharpening after the fact. (If you have lots of scanned film images you may wish to create a separate action for those images with higher sharpening settings.) While it is true that a given image may look somewhat better with a bit more sharpening, the amount of time saved by using an action is considerable; I have almost never had an image that looked over-sharpened using the settings above.

Now click File/Save For Web and Devices. Make sure that JPEG is selected in the box below the word Settings. Click on the tiny right-pointing arrow above the word Optimized near the upper right corner of the Save for Web window and then click on Optimize to File Size. Enter the number 145 in the Desired File Size box, click OK, and then click Save. In the Save As Optimized box, make sure that you click through to the desired location and folder and that “Images Only” appears in the Save As Type box.

Next, click File/Close. A box should open and ask, “Save Changes to original file?” Click no as you do not want to save the changes to your master file as it would be destroyed... Lastly, you will need to click on the square to the left of the red circle on the bottom of the Actions window. This stops the recording of your steps and saves the action. Be sure to remember to end the recording or you will have to begin the whole process anew! (Been there, done that!) Now, when you have a finished master file that has already been named and saved, you can simply hit the f2 key and the processed file will be saved in your Web 800 j-pegs folder in a few seconds!



__________________
later and love, artie......... Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

BAA Site Guides, Digital Basics File, Mark III User's Guide, APTATS, Wimberley products, Lens Coats, Leg Coats, Mongoose heads, Delkin Products, Gitzo Tripods, and tons more: http://www.birdsasart.com

Learn everything that I know about digital nature photography here: "The Art of Bird Photography II" (on CD only)
Last edited by Arthur Morris; 02-23-2008 at 025 AM.

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[Arthur Morris]

Thanks for the plug Bruce Saved me the trouble! Much appreciated.