ID Challenge #6 - closes 14 January 2010

[Neil Fitzgerald]

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What is the odd one out here?
Answers for this challenge are due by replying to this topic by midnight (NZDT) on Thursday 14 January 2010.
Click here for the rules.

Remember, your answers will not be visible to anyone else until after the closing date.

Up for grabs is a place on a scheduled Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ pelagic trip, so make sure you have a go at this challenge.

Happy New Year!

[mark ayre]

sharp tailed sand piper

[Peter Frost]

Size relative to wrybill would seem to exclude the stints. Given size, leg colour (dark grey) and the presence of wrybill (therefore photographed in NZ), three options remain: white-rumped sandpiper; curlew sandpiper; and dunlin. Leg length, especially the length of the tibia, seems too long for white-rumped sandpiper, leaving curlew sandpiper and dunlin. I suggest that it is dunlin: dark-centred scapulars with broad brown edging; pale, uniform, greater covers; spotted breast and upper belly; rather uniform head with only a faint supercilium; and wing tips more-or-less aligned with tail tip. Is that a dark rump or just a shadow cast by the primaries? I'll go with Dunlin, and be damned.

Peter Frost :-)

[ledzep]

Sharp-Tailed Sandpiper amongst the Wrybill.
The legs appear dark rather than yellowish but I think this is just the light.
I don't think the breast is dark enough for a Pectoral Sandpiper and I would expect the legs to be lighter, and the back appears too brownish for a Curlew Sandpiper.

[David Riddell]

Well, going by size, general colour, a fairly well-marked cap and the indistinct lower border to the breast, I'm going to go for sharp-tailed sandpiper.

[TonyWilson]

Time to bite the bullet and make a call on this one! I think it's a Curlew Sandpiper in transitional plumage.
The features which lead me to this are; dark legs, blotchy markings (maybe a slight reddish tint here?) on breast and upper flanks, some of the back feathers are black with a hint of red around a couple of these. The size is about right. The only other options where size and colour match would be Sharp-tailed and Pectoral Sandpipers but leg colour and breast markings don't fit and there dosn't seem to be any white edging on the upper feathers.
This was a good challenge.
Cheers, Tony Wilson.

[keith]

lesser knot

[philbattley]

Curlew Sandpiper

[michaelgreeny]

Due to my inability to comfortably identify waders without infinite patience (and more than 1 still photograph) and someone to bounce ideas off of sitting next to me, I am willing to risk a touch of embarrassment in order to have a crack at the answer.

As is tradition, I shall go with my first thought as if I change my answer it is bound to be the first thought that came to mind, and to be honest there is no real scientific reasoning behind my answer apart from the fact that it looks like a Sharp Tailed Sandpiper but without any colouring on top of its head.

Therefore I am going to guess Pectoral Sandpiper.

[Jan]

Pacific Golden Plover