Wader Challenge Week 3

Week 3

This week provided a good selection of less common birds in Australia (one is extremely rare).

Image 1 – Marsh Sandpiper (Tringa stagnatilis)

This bird is very pale, with the predominant colours grey and white. This, together with the long bill and legs identify it as a Tringa. This means a choice between Common Greenshank and Marsh Sandpiper. The bill is finer (and straighter) than that of a Common Greenshank, particularly at the base, which means it is a Marsh Sandpiper. The legs are usually described as greenish. In the photo they seem to have a slightly orange tinge, but they are not yellow/orange enough to start dreaming about Lesser Yellowlegs!

Image 2 – Wood Sandpiper (Tringa glareola)

Often to identify a wader you need to consider a number of features, rather than a single feature. With this image, there are a number of clues which need to be digested together to identify it as a Wood Sandpiper:

· it has generally even dark brown upperparts (not as rufous and with the light and dark contrasts of a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper);

· it has white spotting on the fringes of the feathers;

· it is a typical Tringa – elegant with long neck and legs, but it is brown, not grey and white like a Common Greenshank or Marsh Sandpiper;

· the legs are greenish-yellow (if they were red we would be getting excited thinking about Spotted or Common Redshanks);

· the bill is relatively long and straight; and

· it is not dark enough to be a Green Sandpiper (more wishful thinking by Fred and John because neither of them have seen this bird in Australia).

Again, in the field it bobs and teeters and has a distinctive call

Image 3 – Hudsonian Godwit (Limosa haemastica)

Here the photo shows a feature which is often difficult to see in the field. The dark underwing pattern of the bird on the right is diagnostic (meaning there is no other wader with this pattern) – Hudsonian Godwit. If one appears (which it does very rarely), it usually stands around without raising its wings. Then you need to separate it from the more common Black-tailed Godwit by comparing leg length (not possible if it is in a group of Sandpipers and Stints) and looking for other very subtle differences.

The bird on the left is a Bar-tailed Godwit – identified by its tail pattern

Image 4 – Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos)

The white which extends from the breast over the fold of the wing is the best clue to the identity of this bird. In the field it would be teetering (moving its body up and down like a see-saw), bobbing (moving its head up and down) and flying with extremely shallow jerky wing-beats - but the photo cannot show these very characteristic behavioural clues. The white supercilium (eye-brow), white eye-ring, and finely streaked neck and breast are all indicators. As too are the light and dark bars on the upper-wing. The long tail, the darkness of the legs and bill and other very fine differences might be helpful if you thought you had its North American equivalent, the Spotted Sandpiper (Fred Smith and John Barkla just started dreaming).