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ABA Photo Quiz

ABA Online Bird Photo Quiz 119

Answer

Yet another poorly-lit, flying, quiz subject; oh, joy.

Our bird seems to have long legs, as the feet appear to extend past the tail, but our angle may be throwing off that estimation; if it were right overhead, we could be a lot more sure about that feature. Though the bird may not be incredibly long-legged, we can see enough leg well enough to know that it is very far from short-legged (considering that we cannot see even the metatarsal joint – ankle, despite that length of visible leg). However, there are quite a few other features that seem less subjective, including the pale of the secondaries extending distally into a basal primary stripe that continues all the way the to the leading edge of the wing. There are really very few ABA-area bird species, regular or rare, that sports something like that. Additionally, the tail seems just about as pale as the secondaries and the apparently dark wing linings may actually be such.

With all of these clues, we can probably start amongst the shorebirds to find our solution. The extent of that wing stripe and the pale tail rule out the wing-striped godwit species, as well Common and Spotted sandpipers, and the two pied species of oystercatcher. Sanderling has a wing stripe like this, but our bird’s bill seems to stout-tipped and long to be that of a Sanderling, and the wing linings are awfully dark.

Hmm, does this all sound familiar? Perhaps, we might jump back a couple of quiz subjects and find very similar discussion about quiz subject 117. Though this is not the same individual, I did take this picture of an adult Willet at Rio Grande, Cape May Co., NJ, on 5 June 2012.

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The following people (listed by submission date beginning with the earliest) submitted correct answers for the January Bird Photo Quiz—Willet:

  1. Robert Packard - Riverside, CA
  2. Ryan O'Donnell - Logan, Utah
  3. Dustin Holschuh - Rock Falls,Il
  4. Jan Frye - Richmond, VA
  5. Michael Lester - Tucson, AZ
  6. Chuck Carlson - Ft. Peck, MT
  7. Elliot Schunke - Tallahassee, FL
  8. Alyssia Church - state college
  9. Claude Auchu - La Pocatiere, Quebec
  10. Anya Auerbach - New York, NY
  11. William Rockey - Esparto, CA
  12. Bob Proctor - Elgin, Scotland
  13. Justin Bosler - Lancaster, PA
  14. Nicolas Bernier - Montreal, Quebec
  15. Judith Davis - Harwich, MA
  16. Greg Prelich - New Rochelle, NY
  17. Mike Freund - Seattle, WA
  18. Leah Lewis - Logan, UT
  19. Bryce Robinson - Salt Lake City, Utah
  20. Marie McGee vClinton Twp., MI
  21. Nick Minor - Libertyville, IL
  22. Brian Monk - Oakland Park, FL
  23. Nancy Magnusson - Ellicott City, MD
  24. William Holland - Chevy Chase, Maryland
  25. Rick Wright - Bloomfield
  26. Robert Preston - Stewart Albuquerque, NM
  27. Dan Altif - Swiftwater, Pa
  28. Chris Blazo - Chambersburg,PA
  29. Andrew Guttenberg - Bozeman
  30. Margaret Smith - Boulder, CO
  31. Josh Parks - Fairbanks, Alaska
  32. Martin Sharp - Edmonton, Alberta
  33. Aidan Bodeo-Lomicky - Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
  34. Rob Williams - Peru
  35. Marc Ribaudo - Woodbridge, VA
  36. Gabe Cohen-Glinick - Providence, RI
  37. Robert A. Young - Springfield,va
  38. Nick Newberry - Oakton, VA
  39. Brian E. Small - Los Angeles, CA
  40. Brian Bielfelt - Santa Clarita, CA
  41. Dan Vice - barrigada, guam
  42. Blake Mathys - West Mansfield, OH
  43. Joshua W. Vetter - Cary
  44. Sebastien Rioux - Quebec city, Qc
  45. Aaron Bilyeu - Placerville, CA
  46. Kevin Hill - Shoreline, WA
  47. Kevin Hill - SHORELINE, WA
  48. Jack Holloway - Mesa, AZ
  49. Alex Wiebe - Takoma Park, MD
  50. Celestyn Brozek - Albuquerque, NM
  51. Adam Sell - Grayslake, IL
  52. Brennan Mulrooney - Santee, CA
  53. Gary Bloomfield - Arcata, CA
  54. David Rankin - Biddeford
  55. Wes Hatch - Chagrin Falls
  56. Briana C. - Makanda, IL
  57. Doug Happ - Hamburg, NY
  58. Wayne Meyer - Denison, TX
  59. Brian Menker - Dayton, OH
  60. Simon Mitchell - Doncaster, UK
  61. Jon Atwood - Marlborough, NH
  62. Darrel Wilder - Johnson City, TN
  63. Peter Lane - Québec City, Canada
  64. Karl Erich Mayer - Saint Clair Shores, Michigan
  65. Stephen Kloiber - Pen Argyl, PA
  66. Urs Geiser - Woodridge, IL
  67. Joseph Mosley - willard, MO
  68. Stephen Joly - Kamloops, BC
  69. Monica Nugent - New Westminster, BC
  70. Don Jones - Laramie, WY
  71. Kyle Lima Ellsworth, Maine
  72. Kim Dohms - Shirley, BC
  73. seth mcnaught - Berkeley, CA
  74. Jason McGuire - London, ON
  75. John Brett - Toronto, ON
  76. Marcelo Brongo - Sant Cugat del Valles, Spain
  77. Ann Gibson - Winfield, BC
  78. Mike Wasilco - Caledonia, NY
  79. Austin Young - Filer, ID
  80. Daniel Young - Edgewater, FL
  81. Colton Prins - Redcliff, Alberta
  82. Gabriel Foley - Regina, Saskatchewan
  83. Dave Krammes - Quakertown, PA
  84. George Cresswell - Colorado Springs, CO
  85. Diane Porter - Fairfield, IA
  86. Julio Gomez - Davis, CA
  87. Barb Robertson - Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
  88. Jason McGuire - London, ON
  89. Josh Beck - Half Moon Bay, CA
  90. Vince Cavalieri - DeWitt, MI
  91. Ali Iyoob - Raleigh, NC
  92. Brennan Obermayer - Barrie, ON
  93. Kayla P. Hamler, - Ohio
  94. Nancy P. Hamler, - Ohio
  95. Zachary Holderby - Penobscot, ME
  96. Benjamin Shamgochian - East Providence, RI
  97. Sean Williams - East Lansing, MI
  98. David Bell - Guelph, ON
  99. Greg Schrott - Avon Park, FL
  100. Josh Southern - Raleigh, NC
  101. Joseph Miller - Nickerson, Kansas
  102. Bryant Miller - Partridge
  103. Kyle Leader - Bainbridge Island
  104. Michael Kline - Fredericksburg Va.
  105. Mayn Hipp - Boston, MA
  106. Alexandre Anctil - Rimouski, Qc
  107. Terri Everett - Big Rapids, MI
  108. Mike Fialkovich - Pittsburgh, PA
  109. Cheryl Caesar - Lynnwood, WA
  110. Greg Zupansic - Eugene, Oregon
  111. Steven Bouyack - Columbus, Ohio
  112. John Gluth - Brentwood, NY
  113. Daroczi J. Szilard - Tg.-Mures, Romania
  114. logan kahle - San Francisco, CA



How Did You Compare?

As stated in the quiz rules, answers must consist simply of the Common or English name exactly as it appears in the ABA Checklist.

The following list shows the number of submissions for each species guessed.



Pectoral Sandpiper
5
Buff-breasted Sandpiper
3
Stilt Sandpiper
3
Black-bellied Plover
2
Red Knot
2
Upland Sandpiper
2
Surfbird
2
Baird's Sandpiper
1
Lesser Yellowlegs
1
Fork-tailed Storm Petrel
1
Common Redshank
1
Greater Yellowlegs
1
Lesser Yellowlegs
1
Ross' Gull
1
Sabine's Gull
1
Ruff
1
Pigeon Guillemot
1
 
Short-billed Dowitcher
1
Spotted Sandpiper
1
White-winged Dove
1
White-winged Tern
1
Wislon's Storm Petrel
1
"oystercatcher"
1
 


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The photo and answer for this quiz were supplied by Tony Leukering.