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Greater or Lesser Sandpipers? Singapore (1 Viewer)

Avian Seeker

Well-known member
Greater or Lesser Sand Plovers? Singapore

I find it hard to differentiate between Greater and Lesser Sand Plovers*.

Images are all different birds.

Thanks in advance.


*Sorry, just realise that I have erroneously typed in Sandpipers instead of Sand Plovers.
 

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These threads are always interesting for me as I find this group very difficult. I only have limited experience of Greater, and I've never seen Lesser in any guise.

That aside, I would have called all these Lesser based on (relatively) small bill size and the fact that generally they look fairly slight
 
Lesser for me, with the darker legs and the beak looks too slight for greater. Joints on legs look a green shade. Also, not much white around the face near the lores and base of bill. However, may have got this completely the wrong way round!
Lovely photos,
regards,
Jono
 
I'll leave confirmation of your photos to those with expertise and experience, but in Singapore, wouldn't Mongolian Plover (sspp stegmanni, mongolus) be a candidate as well as Lesser (mostly schaeferi?) and Greater?
MJB
 
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Attached another 2 images showing the same individual as in Image 4 in the original post.

Would appreciate any other input and opinion. Hopefully can have a conclusive id.
 

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Too close to call for these?

Would really appreciate any input.

All are Lesser. YOur last photo shows the distinctive structure of the bill, with the bulge on the culmen occurring on the final third only, rather than the final half of the bill on Greater. Greater has a much more tapered, sharper bill tip. The mongolus group does not occur commonly in Singapore and Malaysia (in fact, I've never seen one here), these are the western breeding atrifrons group. Ringing measurements show that the race which occurs most commonly is schaeferi, the longest-billed of all Lesser races.
 
All are Lesser. YOur last photo shows the distinctive structure of the bill, with the bulge on the culmen occurring on the final third only, rather than the final half of the bill on Greater. Greater has a much more tapered, sharper bill tip. The mongolus group does not occur commonly in Singapore and Malaysia (in fact, I've never seen one here), these are the western breeding atrifrons group. Ringing measurements show that the race which occurs most commonly is schaeferi, the longest-billed of all Lesser races.

Dave,
Thanks for the info on the mongolus group.
MJB
 
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