Candidate Semipalmated Plover, today on Fuerteventura. (1 Viewer)

[Evan Atkinson]

Hi all, a friend of mine is currently on Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands. He photographed this plover on one of the beaches and it does show a fair few pro semipalmated features such as webbing on both feet, a quite thin black chest band, reduced supercilium just above the eye and extending only a short bit past and a rather short bill. He cannot get the pics off the camera as he has no way of doing so; so apologies for the BOC shots. Lots of opinions would be welcomed. Pics below and all are the same bird.







Kind regards

Evan

 

[Evan Atkinson]

bump

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

I struggle a bit to see why this could be a Semipalmated Plover, particularly in a vagrant context. The amount of white above the eye is pretty extensive and I can't see any webbing between the inner toes (maybe obscured?). The black loral line looks quite thick and I would hope to see a little bit of white encroaching above the gape line. There's no obvious pale eye ring either. This is more like what you would need to look for:

Semipalmated Plover Photos and Videos for, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

<p>The cheerful whistle of a Semipalmated Plover coursing over a mudflat or picking through a plowed field is often the first sign that these small shorebirds are present. They look like miniature Killdeer, but with only one black band across the breast. Their brown backs blend especially well...

www.allaboutbirds.org

This is helpful, particularly the collages of head patterns:

Common Ringed Plover in North America: Records, Analysis and Identification: Part l

The Identification of Common Ringed Plover in North America

birdingnewfoundland.blogspot.com

 

[njlarsen]

Sibley writes best distinguished by voice. Pro-ringed features were just mentioned by Andrew, there should be a little white above the gape and yellowish eye ring.
Niels

 

[Steve Lister]

I can't see anything beyond Ringed Plover here.

 

[Evan Atkinson]

Many thanks all, appreciate all the pointers.

Evan