fneil

Taken out in Deep Bay yesterday.  Looked very pale.
What is it?
Neil
Mai Po Nature Reserve,
Hong Kong,
China
01/04/11

Nikon P300 plus Kowa lens/scope Prominar and Kowa zoom eyepiece (60x) and Swarovski UCA adapter


unknown plover mudflats P300 kwzm60x DSCN2157.jpg by neilfif11

EricB

The view is limited and other views would be helpful.

That aside, the striking thing here is the moderate depth incomplete breast band, which has a chestnut tone & a similar tone to the ear coverts. This excludes all the ‘Ringed’ group – Kentish/Little ringed/Long billed/White faced/Ringed etc..

The shape & overall plumage is all wrong for the Oriental/Caspian group - legs are too short and too dark for Oriental, breast band incomplete etc..

Clearly a Charadrius and by a process of elimination we are left with Lesser or Greater Sand Plover. As most of the distinguishing features are based on shape and relative proportions rather than colour– I would be foolish to stick my neck out any further without seeing a side on profile. Having a lump of mud stuck on its bill is particularly unhelpful!!

You probably knew all that and were just asking if this a Greater or a Lesser? The answer to that question, unfortunately, is I cant tell from this one shot – but perhaps someone else has some additional id features that would differentiate this bird, at this angle.

eric

[ Last edited by RUWright at 2/04/2011 16:46 ]

fneil

Thanks Eric.  The white stripe over the eye would indicate to me Lesser ( according to Viney ) but the head seems very light to me. Also the bill didn't look all that big and the legs not that long.
Neil

EricB

Thanks Neil.Shame you haven't got any side on images.
Generally the features in favour of Lesser are as follows (but remember there is quite a lot of overlap ):
Generally smaller
Very dark legs . Tibia shorter than Greater
Rounder head.
Shorter and blunter tipped bill in Lesser. In Greater the culmen curves gently towards the bill tip with a weak bulging of the bill often over about half of the bill length (in Lesser less than half).
In Greater the length of bill >distance from rear of eye to base of bill. In Lesser this distance is about equal.
Other soft features include: Lesser stands more upright than Greater and has a larger part of body in front of the legs than Greater.
Lesser usually takes no more than 9 steps in one burst of running.
The eye appears larger in Greater and is more in the centre of the head compared to Lesser.
Lesser comes into breeding plumage later than Greater.

Hope this helps for the future.
BW
e

ajohn

I actually get a Kentish feel to this bird. The size, structure and horizontal stance look right to me. The legs are black, and the bill looks fairly fine (OK, it's hard to judge with the mud). It is possible for Kentish to show a slight chestnut tinge in the ear coverts and breast band - see for example http://orientalbirdimages.org/se ... Family_ID=&p=12

The bird is surely not Greater Sand Plover, which should normally look larger, heavier billed and longer legs (wth paler legs). Also most have at least some breeding plumage by now. It may be Lesser sand Plover but I would expect that to look slightly more 'upright' and small-headed. Lesser has a fairly thick, short bill (again, tricky to judge at this angle). And at least some Lessers are now showing breeding plumage - I would expect darker flanks than this bird shows.

If there are more photos, it would be very useful to be sure which species this is.

EricB

I agree its proportions look odd for a Sand Plover but I put this down to the angle and the possibility that the bird was running towards the camera and caught sort of  'crouching'. Like you I'd like to see any other available images.
eric