Evidently some of you are suffering from the lack of wader ID help requests on the forum. Hopefully these might give you enough of a fix to last until Spring. I have no idea what any of these are... If anyone has any tips for IDing waders in general, I would be grateful... Some have funny beaks and stuff which is good (like the Godwits), but there are heaps of them where I would have no idea where to start trying to ID them.
Where were these taken?
Whoops, sorry, I forgot to mention it. They're from Fraser Island in January.
#1 Pacific Golden Plover; #2 + #3 Red-capped Plover, non-breeding; #4 Sanderling - happy to be corrected on any of these. Birdlife Australia has a Shorebirds Identification booklet that has good size sketches and clear ID points. I also have a copy of the Identification Guide found at www.sunbittern.com/publications.html that has photos
Peter
Thanks for the link, it looks very interesting.
How have you differentiated between the Pacific Golden and Grey Plovers?
Also, with no. 4, my guide suggests that Sanderlings don't have a rear toe.
Check RN Stint rather than Sanderling... no dark shoulder patch and also because of the hind toe. Grey Plover is differentiated from PGP with it's massive bill and big beady eye. The best thing I can say is to become familiar with the characteristics of all wader genus. There is so many ID tips and tricks which make Identification a whole lot easier but there is no book with everything in it!Most of the time, you learn ID tips and behaviour by experience. So, perhaps, more time in the field photographing and trying to idendify the birds then posting them on the site will make you more familiar of the birds. Also, with careful observation, you will learn about their behaviour and characteristics.
Brandon (aka ihewman)