There are several groups of birds that are infamous for their tricky to ID members. I’ve always had a theory on why certain groups throw even the most experienced birders for a loop. We as a whole are very visually orientated, noticing patterns and bold colors, but do tend to have issues comparing differences in shades of similar colors. For example, different shades or grays and browns that make up groups such as sparrows, gulls, fall warblers and shorebirds. When your just comparing this brown to that brown, many people struggle. This lack of color clues make the above mentioned group hard to decipher.
When color is not clear, we must rely on other factors to ID a bird, many of times these factors can be just as minor.
With July here, many shorebird species have started their journey south from their northern breeding grounds.
Shorebirds don’t have to be as hard as their reputation suggests — you just need a different approach than you would use for songbirds. Instead of starting with color, you first look to shape, size, and behavior. Here’s a good framework to look at.
Start with Size
When you see a shorebird, ask yourself: is this bird small, medium, or large compared to the birds around it? Shorebirds flock together, which means you almost always have a built-in size reference.
•Small (“peeps”): Least, Semipalmated, Western Sandpipers — sparrow-sized
•Medium: Dunlin, Pectoral Sandpiper, dowitchers — robin to pigeon-sized
•Large: Willet, godwits, curlews — crow-sized or bigger
Breaking birds down into size first helps narrow down your options before you’ve even looked at any other factor.
Then Look at Bill Shape
Bill shape tells you how a bird feeds. Bill shape and size alone can be hands down one of the most important clues to look at for shorebirds.
•Straight and short: plovers — they forage by eyesight, plucking invertebrates from the ground surface, not probe.
•Straight and long: dowitchers, godwits — deep probers
•Downcurved: curlews, some sandpipers (like Dunlin and Western)
•Upcurved: Avocet
Watch the Feeding Behavior
This is the part many may skip, but it still can provide important clues to your ID process.
•Sewing-machine motion (rapid up-and-down probing) → dowitchers
•Run-stop-peck → plovers
•Steady probing in mud, in a line with others → dowitchers or dunlin
•Wading and sweeping the bill side to side → Avocet
Watch a bird for 30 seconds before you try to ID it. Behavior can help narrow things down quicker than color.
Don’t Skip Structure
Leg length and neck length matter:
•Long legs, long neck → yellowlegs, godwits
•Short legs, hunched posture → peeps, plovers
•Leg color can be a good clue— yellow legs rule out a lot of species, but remember, legs can be covered in mud, making their true color deceiving.
In Practice:
Next time you’re at a mudflat or shoreline:
1.Pick one bird and ignore the rest of the flock
2.Note size relative to a nearby bird
3.Note bill length and shape
4.Watch it feed for 30 seconds
5.Then check plumage details
By the time you get to plumage, you’ve usually already narrowed it down to two or three possibilities — which makes the fine-detail work not so overwhelming.