American Golden Plover

[Phil Straw <>]

Dear Tun Pin Ong,

I haven't spent much time looking at your earlier photos (I don't  
subscribe to birding-aus) and not terribly interested in vagrant birds  
and don't go out of my way to chase them.
However I have looked at a number of your photos this time and have no  
doubt that the bird you have photographed is an American Golden  
Plover. I last saw this species in 1994 in northern NSW,  the only  
record accepted for NSW (another observer submitted the record, not  
me). The AGP has an obvious difference from the PGP in its jiz, as  
obvious as the difference between Wandering and Grey-tailed Tattlers.  
An interesting comparison between the two species is that Wandering  
Tattlers often have a late moult  of the primaries (when compared with  
Grey-tailed Tattlers). This often attracts attention to the North  
American bird, apart from the obvious difference in colour and jiz.
However, returning to American Golden Plovers, I don't remember the  
state of primary moult in the 1994 bird.
It is a pity that it takes the arrival of a vagrant before people  
start taking a close look at our common birds, to compare plumages. I,  
and other members of the AWSG, are interested in obtaining good, high  
resolution, photos of any of our shorebirds through the year for the  
purpose of aging and sexing birds in the field. We have aged a lot of  
birds in the hand from close examination of plumage. However with the  
improved technology of digital photography we can now see finer  
details of birds in the field. If anyone has a good series of high  
resolution photos of any of our shorebirds I would love to have a CD/ 
DVD of them (obviously not doing anything with them without the  
approval and acknowledgement of the photographer).
Keep up the good work

Cheers,

Phil Straw
Coordinator
Asia Pacific Shorebird Network

www.shorebirdnetwork.org



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