Dowitcher Help - Southern California, April (1 Viewer)

[HeadWest]

Hi All,

Any input on these dowitchers is greatly appreciated. My initial thoughts are that bird 1 is a long-billed, while the others are short-billed. I thought bird 1 had a fatter, more rounded shape when feeding. It also seemed appreciably larger than another nearby dowitcher, but size judgements are so subjective.

For birds 2 and 3, in addition to the photos, it sounded like birds were giving off spaced-out single note tuu calls as they fed. I'm including a link to a faint recording I made of one of those calls. This call in particular led me to think these were short-billed.

Call link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15HrXSXJoL5lX7eDa4se7110TJkBejgtA/view?usp=sharing

Thanks

 

[jmorlan]

They all look more like Long-billed to me based on the white tips to the scapular feathers and well defined barring on sides of the breast. Also some show broad dark tail bars (not completely reliable). Can't make much out of the voice recording, but Short-billed usually has a run-on call, almost a trill tu-tu-tu. .

 

[arcadillor]

all long billed dowitcher

 

[tom baxter]

Bird 2 in the last photo is a short-billed Dowitcher. The side profile of the head and the photo quality is perfect and definitive of short-billed. It’s subtle but the thickness and taper to the bill and the angle of the forehead are displayed in perfect profile that is very strongly suggestive of short-billed. It checks all the boxes and more importantly does so in a perfect profile. It is molting the exact same feathers as bird 3 so it’s probably the same species. What is interesting is that bird 2 and bird 3 have different markings on the neck that appear to support different species field marks. Bird 3 has more well defined barring on the neck where bird 2 has a more spotty pattern. I thought that bars = lb and spots = sb but as per usual plumage factors between these two species are seem subjective and in my opinion unreliable. I personally find molt and head shape and bill shape the only reliable ways to identify the two species. The differences are so subtle though that a perfect profile is often needed to be sure. We have that here for bird 2. I have studied the scapular and tertial pattern differences for years and I don’t see it consistently. I’m not saying others do not, but I simply cannot see it. Bird 1 is definitely long-billed.

Of side note, spurred from the OP and adding to the confusion, long-billed frequently call WHILE feeding and short-billed almost never (if ever) do. So this contradicts the conclusion that bird 2 and 3 are short-billed. Nonetheless I am quite confident by the visual of the photo that bird 2 is short-billed. The audio file does Sound like long-billed are you sure it was made by bird 2 or 3?.

........edit

Everything about these makes me think they are long billed except the last photo of bird 2 where everything about it looks like short-billed, and the confusion surrounding the spotting on the neck of bird 2 not matching bird 3 while the molt of the flight feathers does match. Maybe bird 2 is short-billed and bird 3 is long-billed but that seems unlikely and I begin to feel myself losing credibility.

What the hell.

 

[HeadWest]

Many thanks for the input everyone.

Bird 2 in the last photo is a short-billed Dowitcher. The side profile of the head and the photo quality is perfect and definitive of short-billed. It’s subtle but the thickness and taper to the bill and the angle of the forehead are displayed in perfect profile that is very strongly suggestive of short-billed.

Tom, what is it about the side profile that says short-billed? Just curious.

Of side note, spurred from the OP and adding to the confusion, long-billed frequently call WHILE feeding and short-billed almost never (if ever) do

I found a couple sources that mentioned that short-billed occasionally let out single notes while feeding. Here is one of them (not sure if this is a reliable site or not): https://birdsofseabrook.app.clemson.edu/species_non-passerine/s194-shrt-bill-dowitcher.html

I am not sure which of the birds the calls were coming from.

Tom, these birds are also wading in deeper water, which I saw you mention in another dowitcher post as being a behavioral trait of long-billed. So there's that..

Here's a link to more photos. Not sure if they will be helpful or not.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ku6pGAQmxb1jAaSR8