Contributor
Date
Location
- Age and sex
- Unknown age, Unknown sex - 1
- Behaviors
- Foraging or eating
Observation details
Cold, grayish-brown color overall (rising sun casting warm glow on birds, compare to Marbled Godwits); bold white supercilium extending beyond the eye; bi-colored bill - pink base with black front half; slightly smaller than Marbled Godwits, which it was feeding with in close proximity. Also noted a much flatter back (less hump-like appearance than MAGO) and lack of any cinnamon/buffy colored tones across the body, which stood out through scope. A combination of the aforementioned field marks effectively narrowed the ID down to Hudsonian or Bar-tailed Godwit. Further notes support Bar-tailed: Dark, blackish patterning on the scapulars and tertials, across otherwise grayish upperparts. Dark-colored barring against white undertail. Upper tail appeared plain gray in photos, unlike distinctive black-and-white tail pattern of Hudsonian Godwit, which would have been apparent. Observed on the playa among several thousand Marbled Godwits. 3/4 of the flock dispersed at 7:52 AM and I was unable to relocate it after. I plan to submit a record to the UBRC and will update the sighting accordingly.
Additional species
Technical information
- Original file size
- 4.82 MB