Bird Photos: Studies: Lesser Golden-Plover

This is a bird that was found by Bill Bousman on 9/9/03 in Alviso, CA. I took my photos on 9/26/03. It was at first tentatively identified as an American Golden-Plover. Discussion about this bird's specific identity roiled on the South Bay Birds list from 9/21/03 when Al Jaramillo wondered why it couldn't be a Pacific Golden-Plover. Tom Grey took some digiscoped images of, apparently, the same bird right after its discovery. You can go directly to Tom's photos from these links: image #2, image #3, image #4, image #5, and one that I modified to show the measurement feature of the distance from the eye to the base of the bill vs. the wing extension beyond the tail. Al provided some reference images on his website, but he is in the process of revampng it. So, the following links are temporarily dead: Pacific Golden-Plover #1, Pacific Golden-Plover #2, one of Tom's images that Al modified, and an American Golden-Plover in breeding plumage.

These images are not of the best quality and I am sorry if they don't help to advance the discussion. Look at them as an armchair visit to this interesting plover. (Go ahead, crack open a beer.) The images have been sharpened a lot; I have tried to avoid changing the color balance in the images while preparing them for the web. You may still see image oddness. Some problems may arise from the differences in the way that the same images appear on a Macintosh vs. a Wintel machine.

I have some reference images of Golden-Plover in Hawaii and Alaska. Some of these show birds in breeding plumage.

You might recall that Bill Bousman mentioned that there was another "golden" plover in another pond near this bird. Check it out, this was interesting.

PLEASE DO NOT DOWNLOAD ANY IMAGE WITHOUT ACQUIRING PERMISSION TO DO SO. You may create links to these pages. All images on this page are copyrighted by Les Chibana.

1st set of images
		Right front quarter view showing remnant breeding plumage on the belly establishing this bird as an adult molting into winter plumage.
		Right rear quarter view. This is the side with the bright, apparently new tertial.
		Left side view. This is the side that is missing one or more tertials. The wing extension beyond the tail doesn't appear too great in this image.
		Left rear quarter view.
		Rear view.

2nd set of images
		Same bird, same day, just another group of shots. Right front quarter view.
		Right rear quarter view.
		Left rear quarter view.
		Rear view.

Send a note

PLEASE DO NOT DOWNLOAD ANY IMAGE WITHOUT ACQUIRING PERMISSION TO DO SO. You may create links to these pages. All images on this page are copyrighted by Les Chibana. If you'd like to contact me about images on these pages, grab the pigeon on the left and send a note.

Go home