ML251575841
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
Media notes
Two Short-billed Dowitchers in faded, alternate plumage photographed by Curtis A. Marantz on 22 July 2020 along the shore of the Salton Sea off the west end of Young Road, Imperial County, California.
Observation details
After hearing soft “tu, tu, tu” calls that sounded like those of a Short-billed Dowitcher the second time this morning, I searched through the flock of dowitchers from which these calls seemed to come. I spotted fairly quickly a bird that stood out as different from the other birds, albeit not strikingly different. The first thing that caught my attention was not anything in particular, but instead, the fact that this bird looked different overall. Closer inspection revealed several subtle differences between this bird and the ones with which it was associated (apart from a second bird that I identified as a second Short-billed). Most obvious was that the overall coloration of this bird’s underparts was a paler and more of a deep buff to orange-buff, as opposed to the deeper and more orange color that characterized the other birds. Moreover, this bird was more heavily marked with speckling at the sides of the breast and the deeper buff color faded to whitish by the lower belly and undertail coverts. The undertail coverts and what I could see of the tail were finely barred with black-and-white, but the black did not dominate on either. Further apparent was that the upperparts appeared more solidly dark, with irregular and rather narrow pale markings rather than the more variegated pattern that seemed to characterize the upperparts of the Long-billed Dowitchers, which also had black markings, but these interspersed with more rufous markings and resulting on an overall appearance that was more heavily marked and generally not quite as dark. My impression was that this bird had a slightly shorter bill than the other birds, but the difference was subtle. Moreover, on the first Short-billed that I spotted, the wing coverts were conspicuously worn and a rather plain brown in color, together suggesting that this was a one-year-old bird. The second bird appeared generally similar in almost all respects, but with the wing coverts more boldly marked in a way that did not seem to contrast strongly with the pattern on the upperparts. I suspect this bird was an adult. Not too long after these birds flew off, I again heard calls by a Short-billed Dowitcher, and when I looked up a single dowitcher flew in and landed among the closer dowitchers that were foraging along the shore. Having seen this bird land among the flock, it was easy to pick this bird out from the other members of the flock and we quickly noted that this bird looked much like the ones we had seen earlier, but also that this bird had the more boldly marked wing coverts that characterized the second bird. I therefore suspect we heard and saw only two Short-billed Dowitchers among the roughly 300 Long- billed Dowitchers that were present.
Technical information
- Model
- Canon EOS 7D Mark II
- Lens
- EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM
- ISO
- 320
- Focal length
- 400 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire
- f-stop
- f/8.0
- Shutter speed
- 1/800 sec
- Dimensions
- 2273 pixels x 1509 pixels
- Original file size
- 4.79 MB