Red-capped Plover (1 Viewer)

Here in Western Australia we have a large area of wetland named the Peel Inlet.
The first pic is of a Red-capped Plover taken without the benefit of a hide and cropped quite severely.
The next two are taken from the new hide but appear to be either females or immature males or something else(?)
The hide worked well until the tide came in very slowly and sneaked up on me from behind!
BTW, my bird book is Australian Birds by Donald and Molly Trounson.

I cannot answer the question itself, however, the Pizzey and Knight field guide has notes that females has head and nape sandier,black less distinct than male, and immature paler with scaly pattern on upperparts. However, also notice that winter adults of both sexes are drawn as much more like immature in the plate.

Niels

Hi Phil

A couple of comments - firstly, yes all three birds are Red-capped Plover. The first is an adult male and then I'd say two adult females but I'm less confident on the age and sex of those two.

My other (unsolicited!) advice would be that the Trounson guide is a useful extra guide to have, I would recommend getting hold of at least one of the major 4 Aus field guides as your main guide (getting more than one is good investment if you want to spend the extra money).

If you don't know them, the four guides I refer to are Pizzey & Knight, Morecombe, Simpson & Day, and Slater. My personal favourite is Pizzey & Knight but any of the four will do the job

Those field guides have been discussed several times on birdforum, for example this thread and the one linked in it: http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=258177

Niels