ID'ing shorebirds often comes down to determining these kinds of small differences :) You're doing a great job capturing them so well in your pics! I think many birders - not only from the Philippines but from all over the world - can take advantage of it.
Hmmm.... and I could have sworn they're mirror images. Indeed, upon closer inspection, the differences in lengths of the legs and bills are quite noticeable.
Marijn Prins & Wouter Thijs
27-Oct-2004 12:54
Romy, we think this is one of your most superb pics to date, at least in terms of bird-ID'ing... Two confusingly similar species together in one photo, showing brilliantly many diagnostic differences between these species! The bird in the front is Greater Sand Plover Charadrius leschenaultii , while the bird in the back is Lesser Sand Plover Charadrius mongolus (mongolus?) . Look at the differences in bill size and length of the legs. With some imagination you can even see that the legs of the Lesser are darker.