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Nick Komar | profile | all galleries >> Birds >> Rare Birds >> Snowy or Kentish Plover? tree view | thumbnails | slideshow | map

Snowy or Kentish Plover?

On September 9, 2022, Brendan Beers reported a Snowy Plover at Timnath Reservoir in Larimer County, in northcentral Colorado. No previous fall eBird records exist for this species in Larimer County, so this was a truly rare bird. Looking at his digiscoped photo (the first photo in this gallery), the bird struck me as odd for a typical North American Snowy Plover (Charadrius nivosus nivosus). Upperparts were darker brown and legs were darker than I expected. Upon further investigation, I learned that Eurasian sister species Kentish Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus) averages darker than nivosus. Two palearctic subspecies of Kentish Plover could occur as a stray from Europe (C. a. alexandrinus) or Asia (either C. a. alexandrinus or C. a. nihonensis). Other Eurasian plover species are well known to stray to North America on occasion, such as Common Ringed Plover, Lesser Sand-plover, European Golden- Plover and Eurasian Dotterel, so why not Kentish Plover? Click on photos and sonogram images for more discussion. PAGE 1. Images of mystery plover PAGE 2. Comparison of sonagrams of mystery plover to 3 similar calls of Kentish Plover from China and 5 equivalent vocalizations from Snowy Plover. PAGE 3. Kentish Plover reference images for comparison. PAGE 4. Snowy Plover reference images. Note paler legs and pale fringes of upperpart feathers of Snowy Plover. PAGE 5. Side-by-side comparisons of our mystery plover with Kentish and Snowy Plover PAGE 6. Additional photos taken by Nick Komar 10 Sep 2022 with Canon Powershot SX70. Ultimately, the dark brown upperparts, extensive white in rump and tail, and high-pitched flight call support the identification of our mystery plover as Kentish Plover, possibly from Japan or China. The strongest evidence is the sonagram which has a rounded mark at 5.5 KHz rather than a pointed mark at 4.5 KHz (see p.5 comparison).
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Mystery Plover - photo by Brendan Beers Sep 9, 2022
Mystery Plover - photo by Brendan Beers Sep 9, 2022
Mystery Plover - photo by Brendan Beers Sep 9, 2022
Mystery Plover - photo by Brendan Beers Sep 9, 2022
Mystery Plover - photo by Brendan Beers Sep 9, 2022
Mystery Plover - photo by Brendan Beers Sep 9, 2022
Mystery plover - photo by Cole Wild Sep 10, 2022
Mystery plover - photo by Cole Wild Sep 10, 2022
Mystery Plover - photo by Cole Wild Sep 10, 2022
Mystery Plover - photo by Cole Wild Sep 10, 2022
Mystery Plover - photo by Cole Wild Sep 10, 2022
Mystery Plover - photo by Cole Wild Sep 10, 2022
Mystery Plover - photo by Cole Wild Sep 10, 2022
Mystery Plover - photo by Cole Wild Sep 10, 2022
Mystery plover - photo by Cole Wild Sep 10, 2022
Mystery plover - photo by Cole Wild Sep 10, 2022
Mystery Plover - photo by Cole Wild Sep 10, 2022
Mystery Plover - photo by Cole Wild Sep 10, 2022
Mystery Plover flight call sonogram recorded by N. Komar using Merlin app for iPhone Sep 10, 2022
Mystery Plover flight call sonogram recorded by N. Komar using Merlin app for iPhone Sep 10, 2022
Kentish Plover flight call at Qinghai, China
Kentish Plover flight call at Qinghai, China
Kentish Plover flight call at Qinghai, China
Kentish Plover flight call at Qinghai, China
Kentish Plover flight call, Japan
Kentish Plover flight call, Japan
Snowy Plover flight call
Snowy Plover flight call
Snowy Plover flight call
Snowy Plover flight call
Snowy Plover flight call
Snowy Plover flight call
Snowy Plover flight call
Snowy Plover flight call
Snowy Plover flight call
Snowy Plover flight call
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3001DA82-11E7-4346-BE67-F90267807CDF.jpeg
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51E8A600-F1A0-4C72-8A01-658030C7D85C.jpeg
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7813B409-D973-4F77-B676-C393B02D47B4.jpeg
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4C402A53-AAA1-4871-91B3-178554FA2994.jpeg
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6295F63A-5F18-418B-993C-9A6F5D6EA63D.jpeg
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4945EE8F-04DE-4183-B596-7BA6C1E8A322.jpeg
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2AA1BF58-4FD0-4778-8BEF-E3A5FB371A43.jpeg
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B2427E3A-BD89-4A6B-B875-B243709ABFDF.jpeg
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70DAD812-A26D-466D-BBEA-20AA0775DB16.jpeg
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27C72C68-5E3C-48C0-B409-3DF9CE15D04E.jpeg
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127D68D9-B04A-4BBF-A991-A1B639220FD1.jpeg
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34ABDF20-DDFB-4D5A-AD33-4DA0F726475D.jpeg
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59B4D1C9-482B-4E4B-AA9F-2C193033BA84.jpeg
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9EFC8A78-7186-40D9-B78B-A0FAE92E9253.jpeg
Kentish Plover
Kentish Plover
Mystery Plover
Mystery Plover
Snowy Plover
Snowy Plover
Kentish Plover
Kentish Plover
Mystery Plover
Mystery Plover
Snowy Plover
Snowy Plover
Kentish Plover flight call at 5.5 KHz
Kentish Plover flight call at 5.5 KHz
Mystery Plover flight call at 5.5 KHz.
Mystery Plover flight call at 5.5 KHz.
Snowy Plover flight call at 4.5 KHz from Nathan Pieplow’s book
Snowy Plover flight call at 4.5 KHz from Nathan Pieplow’s book
Mystery Plover in Colorado, photo taken 10 Sep 2022
Mystery Plover in Colorado, photo taken 10 Sep 2022
Mystery Plover in Colorado, photo taken 10 Sep 2022
Mystery Plover in Colorado, photo taken 10 Sep 2022
Mystery Plover in Colorado, photo taken 10 Sep 2022
Mystery Plover in Colorado, photo taken 10 Sep 2022
Mystery Plover in Colorado, photo taken 10 Sep 2022
Mystery Plover in Colorado, photo taken 10 Sep 2022
Mystery Plover in Colorado, photo taken 10 Sep 2022
Mystery Plover in Colorado, photo taken 10 Sep 2022
Mystery Plover in Colorado, photo taken 10 Sep 2022
Mystery Plover in Colorado, photo taken 10 Sep 2022
Mystery Plover in Colorado, photo taken 10 Sep 2022
Mystery Plover in Colorado, photo taken 10 Sep 2022
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