ML641373669

Observation details

In with large flock of Black-bellied Plovers, Short-billed Dowitchers, Red Knots, Sanderlings and more. Smaller and more slender-billed than contiguous BBPLs, and lacking that species’ black axillaries and white rump/ upper tail coverts and white-and-gray barred tail. This bird was more golden spangled and browner on the upper parts, had a distinct dusky auricular smudge, and the rump and tail were essentially concolor with the back. All of the foregoing ID’d the bird as a Golden-Plover sp., but I identified it to species based upon its relatively short primary projection and relatively long legs (relative to American Golden-Plover). I see lots of both species on their breeding grounds in western Alaska (where the two species are sympatric) every year, so I’m used to separating them on proportions.

Additional species

• Black-bellied Plover Pluvialis squatarola