ML617544831

Age and sex

Adult Female - 1; Adult Male - 1; Immature Male - 1; Unknown age, Unknown sex - 2

Media notes

The shorebird at the upper right shows the Least's yellow leg most clearly. For the others (disregarding the mostly hidden bird at the lower right) the bill structure is a key: the bill is short, slender and decurved at the fine tip. Neither of the two other small peeps, Western and Semipalmated, have this full list of bill features. This point about Leasts is best seen on the lower three birds (again, setting aside the bird only partially visible, with no beak showing). Now the bill length of the leftmost bird of these three seems greater. Perhaps this is a female, while the other two are males. The two birds at the top have short and thin bills, but not obviously decurved. Of course, one of these has a clear yellow leg. But what about the other? This brings us to other features of note. None of the birds has wings extending beyond the tail, as the larger and similarly-colored, but dark-legged, Baird's Sandpiper does. Returning to the comparison with the smaller peeps (including Western, which, like Least, has wings that do not project beyond the tail, as those of Baird's and White-rumped do), Least is "in all plumages slightly darker and browner than other peeps" (Sibley 2nd ed). This can be subtle. However, on Western in particular, the whiteness of the face and of the breast (even in breeding plumage, when the breast is heavily spotted, but with white background, not a pale brown wash, as in Least, in all plumages. This whiteness is less striking in Semipalmated, but still noticeable, e.g., in the broad white throat. Least has some white on the throat, but the area is much more restricted. A final point to note about the birds in the photo is that the one on the lower right, with the beak showing, has scaly wing coverts. This is a typical feature of first summer birds, having molted some of their juvenile feathers but not their juvenile wing feathers. Only in the full fall molt will they gain the adult wing plumage.

Technical information

Model

DC-G9

ISO

1600

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/6.3

Shutter speed

1/5000 sec

Dimensions

3359 pixels x 1446 pixels

Original file size

673.68 KB