ID Help

[Rich Reich]

Image taken 4-4-2011 at Ding Darling Preserve in Sanabel FL. I believe these are a type of Sandpipers. Please help with specifics.

Thanks.

Rich

[Dan Brown]

These are all Willets. Probably eastern Willets, I'm not sure but same species anyway.

[Rich Reich]

These are all Willets. Probably eastern Willets, I'm not sure but same species anyway.

Thanks Dan.

[Paul Guris]

They are Willets, but I believe they are all western Willets. Don't get too confused by eastern and western. The eastern birds are strict Atlantic coastal breeders. Western birds breed in the freshwater interior, but migrate to the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coast. We get both in New Jersey.

The bills look long, the necks look longish, and although most are in water too deep to see much on the legs, the left-hand bird looks "leggy" to me. The birds all seem pale (though the light is strong). The bird on the right and the 3rd bird from the right are getting some breeding plumage in the breast. The marks look fine and they appear to be a little buffy edged. All of these point towards the western race.

Kevin Karlson has told me some very interesting things about the Willets, and he and multiple people have written quite a bit on the subject. If you have access to "The Shorebird Guide" by O'Brien, Crossley, and Karlson, it provides some great information. Angus Wilson provided some good pages online as well:

Eastern Willet: http://www.oceanwanderers.com/EWillet.html
Wester Willet: http://www.oceanwanderers.com/WestWillet.html
Willet ID: http://www.oceanwanderers.com/ONWillet.html

Interestingly, Kevin told me the eastern Willets don't seem to spend that much time in the U.S. They should be arriving soon in NJ, but apparently are gone by late August / early September and do not winter anywhere in the U.S. Conversely, western Willets are found well into the fall, winter in small numbers in NJ (Brigantine Island this year), and winter in numbers farther south in the U.S.

There is no clear cut agreement on whether these two birds are separate species. They have different structure, different calls, and breed in completely different habitats (salt vs. fresh) which all point to different species, but I have no idea what the genetic situation is. This could be a bird on its way to speciation but just not there yet ... of course all depending upon where you draw the line on what a "species" is.

[Rich Reich]

Paul,

Thanks so much for some very useful information.

Rich