Rare Bird Report #: 62-B-07

Idaho Bird Records Committee Rarities Report Form

Species: Short-billed Dowitcher

Reporter: Jay Carlisle

6105 Kirkwood Rd

Boise, ID 83709

jaycarlisle@boisestate.edu

Other Observers: Debbie Leick & Jean Seymour

Date Report Prepared: 9-19-06

Date Sighting Occurred: 9-3-06

Locality of Observation: American Falls Reservoir, just up-reservoir from the ‘silo’

Habitat: mudflat

Conditions: clear & warm (80’s), relatively calm

Did you take notes? no

Did you consult a field guide or other reference work? during the observation

Sibley, National Geographic, Paulson’s guide to shorebirds of the Pacific NW

Description: Clearly a dowitcher based on the very long bill; lack of central crown stripe and presence of a single superciliary stripe separate from snipes. The bird was in worn plumage and was molting both body (for instance, the bird had some orange feathers remaining on the chest but also many gray feathers) and flight feathers (innermost primaries and outermost secondaries were short & growing indicating flight feather molt had recently begun); thus, many potentially useful plumage criteria were unavailable. The main plumage fieldmark that we did see was that the tail was made up of at least 50% white and was distributed pretty evenly between black stripes on the tail. This was my first suggestion that this bird could be a Short-billed.

Behavior: The bird was mostly seen roosting and was the only dowitcher present among huge #s of other shorebirds (15 other species). It was also seen feeding for a few minutes in the typical sewing-machine like fashion of dowitchers. The bird called on 2 separate occasions when it flew; both times it gave a 4 note version of the mellow ‘tu-tu-tu’ call described in field guides (very distinct from the sharp ‘keek’ of Long-billed with which I am very familiar).

How and when did you positively identify the bird, and what clinched the identification for you? Immediately after hearing the bird call. The largely white tail had me thinking Short-billed but the call was diagnostic.

How did you eliminate similar species, and what were they? Only Long-billed Dowitcher (the more expected species inland) could be confused with Short-billed. Long-billed have predominantly black tails with narrow white bands and their call note is a single, sharp ‘keek’.

Experience with this species (and similar species): I have observed many hundreds, if not thousands, of each during migration and winter throughout the US (especially South Dakota, Connecticut, Washington, and Idaho). I have more experience with Long-billeds since I have been living in inland states for much of the last 8+ years but I saw/heard more Short-billeds while living in Washington and have located Short-billed in SD on several occasions.

General birding experience: extensive; 14+ years in US and Latin America

Were photo(s), video, and/or audio obtained by you? (If yes, please include or attach) No.

Note: The molt in which I observed this bird is unexpected for Short-billed Dowitcher (based on what I have read in Paulson & other books) but the largely white tail combined with the call notes are diagnostic (especially the call). Also, there are exceptions to most rules – as I have seen in songbird migration research in which once in a while we see molting adult Western Tanagers or Dusky Flycatchers, which are species that "don’t" molt in their breeding range. Food for thought ….