My first thought for this bird was a Eurasian Dotterel. The supercilium
was too striking for any simple calidrid eyebrow. Upon looking up Eudomias
morinellus in Hayman, et. al. and in Rosair & Cottridge I'm even more
convinced.

"Fed slow and deliberate" sounds like plover type feeding. And if wounded,
per the limping comment, slow and deliberate is likely for anyone.

Size: A dotterel is within the range of PESA. A large EUDO could be bigger
than a small female PESA.

The white throat fits EUDO as does the dark breast and belly. These are
features of alternate plumage dotterels with females being more brightly
marked than males. A worn adult may show the breast and belly as overall
dark. (But I'm just speculating on this as I have not been so lucky to
actually have seen one of these beauties.)

The drawing is excellent, but are the proportions absolute? Not likely,
even for an accomplished artist. Therefore the length of the bill is
perhaps too long as drawn, but the description does mention the bill as
"shortish". This fits for EUDO which has a bill of 14-19mm and is "rather
short and slim" per Hayman, et.al. This may give the bird the look of a
calidrid instead of a plover.

Leg color is appropriate.

"Neck and breast mottled and spotty" could describe photo A in Rosair even
to the aspect of "remnants of ruff". The neck in the drawing appears more
disheveled than ruffed.

As depicted in the drawing, the tail of a EUDO is longer than the wings.

The back/covert feathering as depicted and described is a good fit for
EUDO, also.

The artist does not show the distinguishing breast band of a dotterel, nor
mentions it. Perhaps this feature was hidden in the ruffled breast
feathers. Photo A in Rosair shows an individual with only a small amount
of banding.

I wish I could find a bird like the one described. It would be a fun study
and definitely one to call in to the charadrii-philes among us (and who
isn't!)

References: Shorebirds, an Identification Guide - Hayman, Marchant, and
Prater
Photographic Guide to the Shorebirds of the World - Rosair and Cottridge



Good birding y'all.
Tom Schooley, Olympia WA , dunlin at mail.tss.net