Another Shorebird to ID! (1 Viewer)

OK, here's another shorebird to id............

It appears to have yellow legs---Least Sandpiper.. If not yellow--Semipalmated

Here are some more pics I found.

Here we go again! It can't be a Semipalmated on that bill shape... its really fine tipped and quite narrowe based as well as being long. I can believe those legs are not black though I can't make them yellow. Its long bummed, though doesn't have much of a primary projection beyond the tail... so lets say that it probably the same species as in the previous thread ~ Unidentified Calidrids

I`d be quite happy to take a gamble on Least Sandpiper - the legs definately look to have a yellow green colour in the second photo...I know its subjective but from these photos I don`t think they look long enough for Long-toed Stint.

I would say that the tapering, fine tipped bill, clean white underparts, brown feathers with black centres on the mantle and scapulars, the streaking on throat & breast all point in the direction of Least - but hey I could easily be wrong!

Least sandpiper. Obviously not SemiP.

Another tricky one - amazing how hard it is on photos to tell the difference between black and yellow. I thought Least Sand on the first picture but the other two don't look to me much like a Least at all. I thought White-rumped Sandpiper on those two, although it, err, maybe doesn't look that 'white-rumped' in the third. Maybe that's a shadow though so I'll go for White-rumped in a bold bid to be different.

I'm still not sure about the identity of this bird but it does appear to have yellowish legs in the first photo or is it just the lighting playing tricks again? It's not a reliable feature after looking at the next 2 pics as leg colour seems to be darker but if push came to shove I would say that they are yellow and invariably a least sandpiper.
In pic 2 the bill structure is just too thin and petite to be Semi-P or Western etc plus the more i think about it the more I think those legs are really yellow so....

More notably, after looking at pic 2, that bill structure and basic jizz convinces me that this bird is the same species as those in the "Unidentified Calidris" thread so, as for Jane, if this species can be id'd, then so can the others just mentioned?

My guess is Least Sandpiper...end of rant!

Hi all,
I agree that it seems to be a Least Sandpiper:we can't ALL be imagining a yellow tinge to the legs!Anyway,the generally brownish upperparts and bill structure point towards this option(and yes,I now think that Jane is right on the other thread,and those 'mystery Calidris' are Leasts)
Harry

M Cowming said:

More notably, after looking at pic 2, that bill structure and basic jizz convinces me that this bird is the same species as those in the "Unidentified Calidris" thread so, as for Jane, if this species can be id'd, then so can the others just mentioned?

My guess is Least Sandpiper...end of rant!

Click to expand...

Well obviously I think they can.. but Chris is less certain. I am however going to index them as probably Least sandpipers!

I was within 6 ft. of those two peeps and I remember specifically looking to see what color the legs were and they didn't look yellow or greenish. But now when I looked at the video I took of them, it does have a slight greenish tinge to it (since they were between the sun and me, I did have a disadvantage so I guess they could have been greenish). It took me a while to try to i.d. them. In the field I thought maybe Western but wasn't really sure. After studying the field guides and the video I came to the conclusion that they couldn't have been Semi-p, Western, or White-rumped because those don't have a dark head (that much color, etc.) in any of their plumages. And also those three species usually have more color on their sides and very little in the middle of the breast. That left Baird's and Least, but since the legs look pretty dark I figured Baird's might be it (the primaries did stick out quite a bit several times in the video, but now I'm figuring that's because of the angle that the bird was). But the Baird's is not often seen in water. Another thing that puzzled me (and is probably why I first thought it was a Western) is the fact that the bill is slightly down curved. The curved bill and the dark overall head, etc. seem to have almost convinced me that they were indeed Least Sandpiper. If anyone thinks otherwise, please speak up now (while I'm still willing to change my mind if I see good evidence against Least). Another thing, I saw these in Nevada a few weeks ago (another reason to rule out Semi-p). Thanks for the help.