birding-aus

Hudsonian Godwit

To: "'Peter Shute'" <>, "'Birding Aus'" <>
Subject: Hudsonian Godwit
From: "Tony Russell" <>
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2009 12:14:44 +0930
Peter, there are some quite good pictures of the Hudsonian in O'Brien,
Crossley, and Karlson, The Shorebird Guide,  pp 116 -117 which do show
some of the undertail and a big pic of the underwing. I could scan them
and send them to you if you are interested. These are photos not
paintings. I can't send them to birding-aus though because of file size.

T.

-----Original Message-----
From: 
 On Behalf Of Peter Shute
Sent: Tuesday, July 14, 2009 9:11 AM
To: Birding Aus
Subject: Hudsonian Godwit


Continuing a thread from a couple of weeks ago ...

I received my copy of Hayman yesterday, in excellent condition, a
bargain for only about $20 including postage, I should have bought one
years ago.  

It looks excellent, BUT ... no pictures of the Hudsonian undertail at
all!  It shows the underwing as a side view with the wings raised.  I
suspect that because it isn't useful for id, they haven't bothered to
show it.  Fair enough, but I think we're entitled to a warning that
you're not going to get a look at the colour of the tail feathers just
by waiting till the bird bends over.  This possibly applies to lots of
species.

At least Pizzey and Knight gives a hint that this might happen by
showing the white coverts extending a little way over the black tail in
flight.  It just goes to show that no field guide is perfect.

Peter Shute

Jackie Moorhead wrote on Saturday, 27 June 2009 7:26 PM:

> For those interested in a good field guide for waders, then I would 
> recommend, "Shorebirds ,an Identification Guide" by Hayman, Marchant 
> and Prater.It is published by Houghton Mifflin Company in Boston USA. 
> It has all the waders in the world, about the size of Slater without 
> all the numerous mistakes that are in all the Australian field guides.

> All your comments about the Hudwit are illustrated well in this guide 
> Peter. I bought mine a few years ago through Andrew Isles for about 
> AUD50 I think. All field guides should be as good as this landmark 
> one. Cheers, Bill "Peter Shute" <> wrote on Saturday,

> June 27, 2009 8:30 AM:

> Some great shots there, David.  Was the second Bar-tailed Godwit 
> present?
> 
> Some questions for anyone who can answer them:
> 
> I've been trying to work out why the Hudsonian's undertail appears to 
> be white when it's on the ground, yet black in flight.  Photo 5549 
> shows what I mean.  I guess it's just the undertail coverts hiding the

> tail when it's folded, and the flight shot, 5476, backs that up, 
> although the legs prevent us seeing whether the coverts extend the 
> full length of the tail.
> 
> Neither Morcombe nor S&D show the undertail in flight.  Slater shows 
> it with the black extending right across, P&K shows the coverts 
> protruding a little way into the black.
> 
> Photo 5540 shows why I initially thought the reddish bird was the 
> Hudsonian. Its tail appears black in that side on photo, whereas the 
> Hudsonian's appears to be white.  I can understand now why the latter 
> looks white, but why does the Bar-tailed's tail look black?  Am I 
> mistaking a primary for a tail feather (and vice versa for the 
> Hudsonian)?
> 
> This photo: 
> http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/birds/scolopacidae/limosa_haemasti
> ca.htm
> shows the outer tail feathers have a white outer web, which wouldn't
> help things when viewed side on.
> 
> Peter Shute
> 
> ________________________________________
> From:  
> 
> On Behalf Of David Stowe 
> Sent: Friday, 26 June 2009 11:04 PM
> To: Birding-aus (E-mail)
> Subject: [Birding-Aus] Hudsonian Godwit
> 
> A quick belated note to say that we saw the Hudsonian Godwit at the 
> mouth of Laverton Creek on Tuesday morning. Grant Brosie, Nick Livanos

> and myself went down from Sydney to see it. I have uploaded some shots

> to my pbase site if anyone is interested. Weather was terrible but we 
> had great views of the bird at rest and in flight.
> 
> http://www.pbase.com/davidstowe/hudsonian_godwit
> 
> Many thanks to those posts on birding-aus and especially to Geoff 
> Jones for taking us around. Cheers
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