Shorebirds of Dewees Island

Bird size legs bill behavior flight other colors Wilson's Plover 6" to 8" yellow black, medium upright when white eats fiddlers, front- white around neck equal to length of alarmed underneath; heavy and over eye head whiter than semi- palmated Black- Bellied 8" - 10" grey-brown black, heavy, short run-stop-pluck black patches biggest plover, Plover under wings relatively short bill Semi-palmated 6 3/4" - 7 1/4" yellow very short black run stop pluck, small chevron plover with orange near foot-trembling on wing face Piping Plover 6 3/4" - 7 1/4" yellow black with orange, run-stop-pluck Paler than can be high and pale face, very short, more semi- dry away from prominent dark orange when palmated water eye breeding plover, Dunlin 7 1/2 " - 8 3/4 black, short black, long, slight walks steadily, huge flocks chunky, thick neck, downward curve picking and most abundant probing winter shorebird Short-billed 9 1/2" to 10 " pale yellow, short grey, slight sewing white upper slimmer and flatter dark on cap and Dowitcher downturn, 2x width machine rump, pale on backed than long- through eye, white of head foraging style secondaries billed above eye (wing) Long-billed 9 1/2" to 10 pale yellow grey, very long sewing white upper fatter than short dark on cap and Dowitcher 1/2" (2.5 -3x greater machine rump, dark tail billed, sometimes through eye, white than width of head) look like above eye "swallowed a grapefruit" Least 4 1/2" to 4 3/4" yellow black, same as walks slowly, smallest shorebird, no clean white Sandpiper head, thin sweeps side to very little white in breast, white and side face lower dark eye stripe Western 5 1/2 - 6 3/4 black black, with some walks steadily, front heavy, thick white through eye, sandpiper droop pecks neck gray smaller, whiter nervously plumage in fall chest than Dunlin reaches most likely winter forward to feed peep carries weight in front Semi-palmated 6.25" gray (heavy with shorter bill on stands and juveniles maintain prefers more sandpiper knobby joints smaller head that bends to feed brown plumage in sheltered habitat other peeps fall, more compact over all Sanderling 7 1/2 - 8 black, straight black, straight, chasing waves large head, thick faint black through tapered, =head neck, no hind toe, eye, white cheeks width chunky Ruddy 8 1/2 - 10" orangy-red black bill, slightly flips over chunky white breast, Turnstone greater than head debris diffuse, pale size fringing on wings Shorebirds of Dewees Island

Bird size legs bill behavior flight other colors Red Knot 10 1/2 " dull olive-yellow black, strong taper, pale gray long-winged mostly gray, dark bill = head size rump and tail streak through eye Spotted 7 1/4" - 8" long teetering usually solitary, Sandpiper motion, wags thin neck tail up and down