Hi all,
I've had quite some experience with all four Pluvialis. This will be my first
September/October for years without seeing many American Golden Plovers... and
this bird "just looks different" ;-)
I agree that this bird looks really interesting. However, I am not convinced in
its identity as an AGP:
First the bird should be aged: it looks like a moulting adult to me.
If there are missing tertials (due to moult) we should be very careful with the
primary projection (AGP has typically 4-5 primary tips exposed past the
tertials, whereas PGP has only a primary projection of 3; careful: this is NOT
wing projection (which is the projection of the wing tip past the tail tip -
both AGP and PGP have a similar wing projection).
The distinctive white eyebrow well behind eye and down the neck could still be
explained by remaining breeding plumage.
However the isolated ear patch rather points toward PGP. Also the too
golden-looking upperparts, the longish legs, and - importantly - the longish
bill (appears in AGP typically shorter which makes them "cuter") ...
We had a very interesting Pluvialis in Cape May, New Jersey, USA, a couple of
years ago which showed field marks of both species and even called like at
times like a PGP and then like an AGP. Photos of this bird are published in
Michael O'Brien's, Richard Crossley's and Kevin Karlson's excellent
photographic "The Shorebird Guide" (My copy of this book is currently -
together with all my other belongings in a container somewhere in the Atlantic
or Indian Ocean...)
Cheers,
Nikolas
----------------
Nikolas Haass
Sydney, NSW
----- Original Message ----
From: Steve Potter <>
To:
Cc:
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2007 8:17:27 PM
Subject: [Birding-Aus] FW: Golden Plover help? .... again (link corrected)
Hi All.
A Golden Plover was observed at Penrice, SA on Sept 9 and 19 and first
thought to be Pacific Golden Plover.
We may have been in error for the following reasons:
The bird was solitary and in the same location as the American Golden Plover
that was observed (confirmed?) here last season.
Wing tips definitely extend well beyond tail.
Distinctive white eyebrow extends well behind eye and down neck.
Having just seen about 60 Pacific Golden Plovers (all in various stages of
colour) at Comerong Island near Nowra, NSW, it just "looks" different. More
upright/taller??
Confirmation of correct identity would be appreciated. It has as been
suggested that it is the same bird (American) as observed last November by
Colin Rogers (November 20, 2006).
Several images (unfortunately poor quality) are available at:
http://www.birdpedia.com/au/bi.dll/bipu06?m=091_01&id549=2678669826_0001&id5
09=SA&id528=Jpg&id906=
Any ideas?
Cheers
Steve Potter
Adelaide, SA
===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
===============================
____________________________________________________________________________________
Check out the hottest 2008 models today at Yahoo! Autos.
http://autos.yahoo.com/new_cars.html
==============================www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
=============================
|
