dowitcherz

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: OK, I'll stick my neck out and give it a shot, hopefully before Joe gets discouraged from lack of response. : The left and central foreground birds seem to be juveniles based on the fresh overall look to the plumage and buffy tones to the scap fringes. Going mainly on what is visible on the right bird of these two, I think they have to be Short-billed. The even, buffy or reddish-buffy wash to almost the entire underparts including the breast, and extending up onto the face is typical of juvenile Short-billed. I think juv. Long-billed aren't typically so bright on the underparts, looking a bit grayer overall, particularly on the face. Also, Long-billed typically have narrow pale fringes and solid centers to the juv. scaps, giving them a darker, less patterned look than is apparent here. On the other hand, Short-billed typically have fairly wide pale fringes and wide pale notching to the juv. scaps, giving them the more patterned look shown by this bird. As is often stated, this is also true of the tertials, and it looks like there might be one tertial barely visible that shows some patterning - not sure because it's hard to tell what feathers are visible due to the low resolution of the scan. : Plumage aside, the date may be the easiest clue for these two birds at least. Juvenile Short-billed typically start showing up on the west coast well ahead of juvenile Long-billed, arriving in August, while juv. Long-billed don't arrive till September. August 9 is presumably (typically) much too early for a juv. Long-billed to be in California (from Kaufman, Advanced Birding). : The right bird looks more like a moderately faded and worn adult just starting to molt. This seems to be the only bird of the four where the actual tail (not just the uppertail coverts) is visible, apparently due to molted missing tertials and primaries. The white bars on the tail look clearly much wider than the black bars, giving the tail a very pale overall look, and presumably indicating Short-billed. The very wide pale fringing/barring and patterned look to the alternate scaps may also indicate Short-billed for this bird, although I'm less sure that applies to adults. : The upper left bird is obviously a faded adult in an advanced state of pre-basic molt, making it tough to even tell what feathers are visible. So many of the feathers are basic (or missing) that I'm not sure this bird is confidently identifiable based on plumage features discernable in the scan. There do seem to be some retained alternate scaps with very wide bars/fringes, so perhaps this is an all Short-billed flock. Hopefully someone with more experience can comment on this bird. : Cheers, : Phil Pickering : Lincoln City, Oregon

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