Mike Smith wrote:

>At the Oyhut Game Range, 3 golden-plovers were seen in Salicornia. One
>seemed to clearly be Pacific juvenile, another looked very much like a
>Pacific juvenile (but less confident than the first), and the third was
>indeterminate to me. The ID of the first was based on very bright
>upperparts, golden on the head, nape, mantle, all over. The second was
>not so bright as the first (lacked gold on the nape and mantle), the third
>even less (gold only on upperparts of wings). Of course I brought Dennis'
>book along, but upon consulting it lost what little confidence I had in
>the ID of these species! Seems very bright Americans can resemble
>Pacifics, and very dull Pacifics look like Americans (contrary to the
>simple IDs described by Peterson, NGS guide, and Hayman et al.). These
>birds were in fairly tall Salicornia, so belly was hard to see, and they
>were reluctant to show a front view (despite watching for about 20 min.).

But the rear (or side) view is probably the most important, to check for
wing projection and primary projection (pp. 79 & 105 in my shorebird book).
In some individuals, these structural field marks aren't entirely clear,
but very often it *is* clear whether the bird has relatively long or
relatively short (for a golden-plover) wings. In a mixed flock I
scrutinized a few years ago, juvenile Pacifics and Americans were easily
distinguished by the wing characters. Always best to use as many
characters as you can see, obviously.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416