Wading Lesser Yellowlegs

Before leaving shorebirds for a while, here's another of our Lesser Yellowlegs I saw among 5-6 spring migration shorebirds (most of whom were Solitary Sandpipers).

I'm a little surprised I got an ID on this 1 since it's in deep enough water that it's not possible to evaluate how "leggy" it is, an important differentiator between Lesser Yellowlegs and Solitary Sandpipers. I suspect that the ID was due to:

  1. Solitary Sandpipers usually have duller yellow legs than the Lesser Yellowlegs.
  2. Solitary Sandpipers generally have a more prominent white eye ring than the Lesser Yellowlegs.

In this case we had to rely on subtly subjective clues to get an identification.

They are described by All About Birds as having a size between an American Robin and an American Crow. Considering I spot them pretty easily, I thought I'd find that they were much closer in size to crows than robins, but instead they're only slightly longer and heavier than our robins, and much smaller than crows. I think it's their legginess that makes them stand out more than you'd expect. (Something similar probably happens with our leggy herons.)

May 9, 2023 at Duke Farms
Photo 282306318, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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