NZ/Mongolian/Large Sand Dotterel???

[Christopher]

Hi everyone, I was up at Waiwera today and came across a curious dotterel. I'm thinking it might be a Mongolian/Large sand dotterel, as it has quite a dark eye-patch and collar and no hint of NZ Dotterel breeding plumage. There were 6/7 other NZ dots who all had very red chests. This other bird also chased a nz dot, but I guess this could just be territorial. Im not sure how long the legs have to be for a large-sand, and it was hard to tell anyway in the soft sand.
Thanks!!

Chris

IMG_1104.jpg (101.77 KiB) Viewed 4244 times

[tim]

that looks like a NZ dotterel in non breeding to me.

[sav]

Chris,

It certainly is a NZ Dotterel.
Mongolian Dot is effectively the same size as a Banded Dot, with pretty much the same jizz.
Large Sand Dotterel is more like your bird but with really long legs and dark, blackish, tabs on the side of the breast.

cheers

[molesunlimited]

There was a similar bird lacking any hint of red at Kaiaua the other day associated with two Dotterels in full breeding flush - and the Curlew. The pale Dotterel was partly hidden by a bank but I finally managed to get a long distant shot of the critter and confirmed its i/d when I got home.

Seen similar birds at Wenderholm and Kawakawa Bay in last couple of months. Two at Kawakawa were obviously immature, presumably last season's hatchlings.

I find NZDs around Auckland to be highly variable in colour even during the height of the breeding season and I have come to suspect the pics in many of the books tend to be of the more colourful birds.

[Christopher]

Thanks for the replies. Yes, after looking at the photos again I started to realize 1 or 2 feathers with a touch of red on the bird's chest. Thanks