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	Pacific Loon header by Dave Hawkins

Advanced ID Topics		All photographs on surfbirds.com are copyrighted by the contributing photographers and may not be reproduced or exploited in any fashion without written permission from the photographer. Click on any of the birds to zoom in on them. HINT: There are 3 species involved. LAST MONTH'S ANSWER: BAIRD'S SANDPIPER, WESTERN SANDPIPER, LEAST SANDPIPER>> LAST MONTH'S ANSWER: BLACK GUILLEMOT>> Congratulations to everyone who got this one right. JULY'S ANSWER BY CIN-TY LEE>> PHOTO A - Identify the 2 larger birds at the back PHOTO B The two larger birds in Photo A are both Short-billed Dowitchers molting from basic to alternate plumage. They were photographed in April along the upper Texas coast. The bird in Photo B is a Long-billed Dowitcher in full alternate plumage, also photographed in April along the upper Texas coast. A close look at the several alternate covert feathers of the two birds in photo A reveal feather tip patterns characteristic of fresh alternate Short-billed. The white tips on the covert feathers extend up the sides of the feathers, giving a somewhat V-shaped pattern. For fresh alternate plumaged Long-billeds, the white feather tips do not extend as far up the sides as in Short-billed, and instead give the impression of having flat tops or “squared-off” tops. From a distance, this gives fresh alternate Long-billeds their characteristic barred look, which is not displayed in any of the Short-billed races. Another feature characteristic of Long-billed in photo B are the white fringes to the tips of the body feathers on its sides. It is important to note here how variable the black-and-white tail pattern is on the three dowitchers. A common belief is that dowitchers can be confidently distinguished by the relative thickness of the black and white stripes on the tail feathers: on Long-billed, the black stripes are believed to always be thicker than the white stripes, while on Short-billed, the opposite is believed true. As can be seen from these photos, such generalizations do not always hold as field marks. The left hand bird in photo A has thick white stripes, whereas the right hand bird has thin white stripes. Cin-Ty Lee Ottavio Janni was the only correct entrant. Well done Ottavio!