ML644219798

觀察細節

Continuing bird, originally found by Deborah Crooks, and pointed out to the mob today by Jonah Benningfield. It was nestled in a little nook between two small mud mounds. Remarkably, gratefully, it was the only bird that didn't flush when the flock took off just a minute or two after it was refound this morning. I didn't happen to see it yawning in the moment, but noticed I captured that moment after the fact. Medium-sized (Dunlin-ish) shorebird that was the most colorful of all the Calidris sp. out there today with a dark, rusty cap, ochraceous (which I think of as somewhere between brown and buffy) wash on the breast, and a bold white eyering. Although I won't dispute Pectoral is the closest looking thing to it we would normally see in this area, I feel like this bird would stand out pretty quickly in a flock of Pecs. The face pattern with that eye ring is just so striking and feels like such an Eastern World trait to me, never mind the absence of that striking, streaked breast that gives Pectorals their name, so it came as no surprise to me to learn after the fact these birds aren't closely related to Pectoral Sandpiper. Instead they form a clade with Ruff and Broad-billed Sandpiper.