Hi All,

Well, the 3/4 view was indeed problematic, in pure profile it's clearly 
a more richly colored juvenile Baird's. It's still a different bird from 
those shown in images two and three of the original post, with its 
richer buff tones and weaker pale covert fringes. Needless to say, the 
reduced color saturation does change the perception of the bird. For 
instance, it no longer appears to have rusty-edged scapulars. As I said 
earlier, most educational. Given the difference in bill shape and length 
I will suggest this is a male. As I also said, it's not about 
identifying species, it's about identifying individuals belonging to a 
species. Most entertaining, and it's nice to be able to work with such 
sharp photographs.

Good birding,

Walter Ellison

Jeff Nadler wrote:
> I was asked if I could supply another image of sandpiper #1 on my last post, 
> at a better angle.  Here is the same bird in a sequential shot, placed at the 
> top. You can see that variable lighting with sun /clouds and even subjective 
> post processing can vary how the same bird looks in these two photos.  For 
> my new photo on top, I purposely refrained from adjusting saturation or 
> contrast. This new photo perhaps makes a better case for Baird's juvy?
>
> http://www.jnphoto.net/dc.html
>
>
> (for additional shorebird images taken over time, please visit my website.)
>
> Regards
>
> Jeff Nadler
> www.jnphoto.net
>
>
>