Lake Superior near Ashland, Bayfield County, Wisconsin
2 May 2012

From Kevin Karlson, co-author of The Shorebird Guide:

"Ryan, this is an easy one for me. They are all card carrying Long-billed Dowitchers for many reasons. First, the back feathers are mostly black, with thin rufous rather than orange edges. Hendersoni SB Dowitcher, which also shows ORANGE color to the vent, has broad, orange upperpart feather fringes that dominate the general color pattern of the back, while LBDO shows a mostly black overall appearance to the back that includes the thin, rufous edges. The body shape is also perfect for LBDO, with a really rounded look to relaxed feeding bird that includes a distince egg-shaped undercarraige compared to a rounded back and fairly straight undercarraige on SBDO. The bills are also perfect for LBDO, with a fairly shallow base that tapers gently to a thin, flat tip. SBO has a deeper based bill that stays fairly thick to the tip, which is often blunt, and about 75 percent of SBDOs have a slight kink in the bill near the tip, like it got stuck in a door. The last definitive field mark in spring is the broad, white feather fringes to the barring (not spotting like SBDO) on the upper flanks. This white fringing and strong barring in this area is distinctive for LBDO. The small bird in one of the shots is a male LBDO, which can look very small next to some really large females, but all the above field characters line up for him as well. I really don't have time for any ID forums other than Frontiers of Bird ID, but feel free to send me any photos that you need help with. I love dowitchers, as you probably know.

Ryan, another field mark that is consistent with LBDO and not SBDO is the complete white eye arcs on Long-billed, with the lower white eye arc more prominent and bold. SBDO has a faint eye ring that does not accentuate the lower eye arc. I often use this field mark on sleeping nonbreeding birds, where the lower eye arc jumps out at you."