The Shorebird GuideWhen many birders go out looking at shorebirds, they see a distant mud flat full of grayish brown birds in various shapes and sizes and have no idea where to begin the identification process. When advanced birders look at that same flock of shorebirds, they can identify the vast majority of birds with a quick binocular scan. Experts use the simplest, most easily observed characteristics--size, structure, behavior, and general color patterns--almost subconsciously, and can identify most birds even before looking carefully at plumage details. Now birders of all levels can learn how to identify these wildly popular birds quickly and with much less effort. This guide provides more than 870 stunning color photographs, sequenced to give a general impression of a species first and progressing to a more detailed image of the bird throughout its life cycle. Captions list characteristics in order of importance, reflecting the thought process that experts use to identify birds. |
Contents
How to Use This Guide | 23 |
American Oystercatcher | 64 |
Sandpipers Phalaropes and Allies Family Scolopacidae | 78 |
Wandering Tattler | 98 |
Longbilled Curlew | 111 |
RARITIES AND REGIONAL SPECIALTIES | 225 |
Oystercatchers Family Haematopodidae | 245 |
Jack Snipe | 306 |
Appendix | 455 |
| 469 | |
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Common terms and phrases
aged by uniformly Alaska American Golden-Plover Atlantic Coast bill Black-bellied Plover body feathers breast breeding areas breeding grounds Calif coastal complete molt dark depart the breeding Dowitcher Dunlin early July early June Egg dates Fall migration takes feeding females flocks Forages Greater Yellowlegs habitats head and body juvenile late April late August late July late June Least Sandpiper legs Lesser Yellowlegs mid-August mid-July mid-June mid-May migration and winter migration takes place molt takes place molt to breeding molt to nonbreeding Molting adult mudflats neck nonbreeding plumage takes North America October one-year-old birds Pacific Coast partial molt Plover plumage begins plumage takes place Red Knot Ruddy Turnstone Sanderling scapulars Semipalmated Plover Semipalmated Sandpiper Sept September shorebirds Short-billed Dowitcher Spring migration takes Status Stilt Sandpiper stop-over sites subspecies recognized supercilium tail feathers tertials tundra typically upperparts variable VOCALIZATIONS Flight call Western Sandpiper wing coverts wintering areas wintering grounds