shorebird in flight, San Francisco Bay, CA (1 Viewer)

I am puzzling over this shot of a bird in flight I took today at Hayward Regional Shoreline, on the east side of the southern San Francisco Bay. I didn't see it before taking off. There were a lot of dowitchers around, which are the usual white-rumped suspects here, but this guy's tail is not a dowitcher tail.

It seems to match Ruddy Turnstone, which seems a bit odd, as this was a fairly muddy, rock-free environment (San Lorenzo Creek), and I didn't see any Turnstones walking around today. There are Ruddy Turnstones at Hayward, though. What do you all think? All comments appreciated!

Good guess. Black Turnstone shows a similar pattern without the rusty coloration. Hard to tell what color this bird is, but turnstone is a good probability.

jcwings said:

Good guess. Black Turnstone shows a similar pattern without the rusty coloration. Hard to tell what color this bird is, but turnstone is a good probability.

Click to expand...

Black Turnstones are more common here, but I was thinking that this bird appears to show too much brown to be a Black Turnstone. Of course, I'm also hoping to have found the slightly more exotic bird.

I think those scapulars are so dark with very little fringing on some that it must be Black Turnstone? There are quite a lot of pale fringes on the coverts but this fits with some Black Turnstone photos I've seen as well as being at the darker end of Ruddy. I'm saying Black on account of the scaps anyway

Jan