Posted by Phil Pickering (208.46.229.186) on November 05, 2001 at 21:05:29:
The right bird looks like a fairly straight forward female Larry's - narrow, whitish spots on central undertail, gray belly and ut coverts, diffuse yellow on breast contrasting with plain gray throat, small short pale gray conical bill, hint of darker area on the face around the bill base, pugged, flat-faced look, proportionately small head.
The dark bill, yellow throat, proportionately larger head, and less flat look to the face seem to narrow the left bird to American or Lesser. From there it gets tougher (for me anyway), but I'd have to say American - maybe a molting female that has already acquired its basic (dark) bill, but still retains partial breeding plumage (given the September date). I know little about juvenile plumage, but perhaps the mottled look also might indicate a young bird. I think the bill looks much better for American - it seems proportionately quite long and stout, and also quite sharp, with a fairly straight culmen. Lesser seem to show a proportionately smaller, shorter bill that has a bit more of a downcurve to the culmen than is apparent here, not looking quite so sharp. Also, although it's hard to tell with the branch in the way, the central undertail appears to be pale, with the pale extending all the way to the very tip of the tail. This would be great for American, and, as far as I know, would be fatal for any plumage of Lesser. Male Lessers do have white in the tail, but it doesn't typically extend all the way to the feather tips. The undertail usually shows a wide, complete dark terminal band, so even a juvenile male Lesser would seem improbable here. I think the dark lores contrasting with the rest of the face may also be a mark for American, less sure about that one though.
Cheers,
Phil