ML341389091

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

***Rare*** Studied for approximately one hour in scope in near-perfect lighting. Compared with breeding plumage Long-billed Dowitcher for about 10 minutes as they foraged together towards end of observation. Both birds were in slightly-worn breeding plumage, but all field marks listed were seen with a very high degree of confidence. Seen in the very back of Memorial Marsh on the last pond a little over a mile from the parking lot. Identified as a Short-billed Dowitcher (hendersoni) based on the following: 1. Structure. Significantly smaller and flatter-backed than Long-billed. This was very obvious when foraging with the Long-billed Dowitcher and easily seen in attached photos/vidcaps.' 2. Color. Short-billed was a brighter orange, most intense on the throat and upper breast and lightening to almost white behind the legs. Long-billed had uniformly deep orange underparts. Long-billed also showed stronger contrast between dark upperparts and underparts. 3, Spotting/barring. Short-billed showed uniform spotting/speckling throughout breast and flanks and minimal barring restricted to the lower flanks. In comparison the Long-billed was heavily marked on the upper breast and had virtually no markings on the lower flanks. 4. Fringing of breast/flank feathers. On the Long-billed Dowitcher, noticeable white fringing was present on the breast and flanks which was absent on the Short-billed. As far as I can tell, this field mark is diagnostic in breeding plumage unless worn. 5. Voice. At one point the Short-billed Dowitcher was briefly chased and flushed by a Red-winged Blackbird. It briefly vocalized giving the 3-parted call that is difficult to describe, but is a harder call than the high "peeps" of Long-billed and has an echoing quality. Although brief, this vocalization left no doubt about the identification. All field marks seen were good for the prairie (hendersoni) subspecies, which is the expected subspecies in the interior West.

Technical information

Dimensions

1280 pixels x 720 pixels

Original file size

2.43 MB