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Jeff Wilson | profile | all galleries >> Galleries >> Arkansas Golden-Plover tree view | thumbnails | slideshow

Arkansas Golden-Plover

Golden-Plover at Benwood Lake, Crittenden Co. Arkansas Oct.8-9, 2011
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American Golden-Plover on left
American Golden-Plover on left		 AR Plover
AR Plover		 AR Plover
AR Plover 		AR Plover
AR Plover
AR Plover
AR Plover		 AR Plover 30.jpg
AR Plover 30.jpg		 AR Plover
AR Plover		 AR Plover
AR Plover
AR Plover - Crittenden Co. AR
AR Plover - Crittenden Co. AR		 AR Plover
AR Plover		 AR Plover
AR Plover		 AR Plover
AR Plover
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Joe Morlan 19-Oct-2011 14:51
I agree with Nick that this is probably an American. There is a big difference in color in the different photos, and the ones that look the yellowest have a yellow cast over the entire image. Other photos show very little yellow and are consistent with American. Even the brightest yellow looking birds have no yellow in the supercilium and the back of the neck. I think the dark capped appearance also favors American. Primary projection looks better for American to me. I don't like to count the number of primaries. Instead I look at the entire projection and compare it with the tertials. Image 4 shows the primaries more than half the the length of the tertials.
Nick Lethaby 18-Oct-2011 19:45
Yuk. Obviously this is a somewhat tricky bird. Having just had a couple of Pacifics and American locally in the last week, I would go for American for the following reasons:

1. Pretty obvious white supercilium. I think it would be rather unusual for a juv Pacific, where the super is more concolorous with the rest of the face pattern.

2. There do appear to be just about 4 primaries projecting beyong the tertials, although the 4th barely makes it. I cetainly think a Pacific could show a similar primary projection beyond the tail and probably a similar projection beyond the tertials. I see moderately long-winged Pacifics quite often. So I don't think the primary projection rules out Pacific, but I do think it probably favors American. The American we just had here was pretty similar to this, although the 4th primary project slightly more than this bird.
3. Range. Given that Americans predominate away from the coast in OR and CA, I can imagine they are much more likely in AR. Therefore it's much more likely you'll get an odd American than an odd Pacific.

Srikes against American would be the rather golden upperparts and the longish bill. However, I just got sent a picture of a bright American similar to this. If I had this bird in coastal CA, I would be struggling. The correct approach there might be to leave it unidentified.
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