Long-toed Stint Ma'oz Hayyim 22/10/2004 |
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On 22nd October Ben Dvir and myself found a Long-toed Stint at Mo'oz Hayyim Fishponds in the Beit
Shean Valley Northern Israel on 22nd October 2004. Articles describing the finding with brief notes
on the identification and various photographs have already been published on the web and can be
viewed via the links here -
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Size, structure and bare parts
As the bird was in a poorly known plumage, at least from a Western Palearctic viewpoint, I thought
it would be worthwhile describing its plumage and identification features in greater detail here.
In size it appeared slightly smaller than the nearby Little Stints and in direct comparison
appeared much slimmer bodied than the much rounder LS, which in comparison appeared as if they
had swallowed a tennis ball. The tertials appeared very long reaching the end of the tail
appearing to completely cloak the primaries. In a front on view the size and shape of the
tertials formed a uniform smooth contour to the wingtips, lacking the pronounced tertial "dip"
and primary extension of LS (see photos 4 & 5). This distinctive shape was a useful feature for
picking out the bird among the hundreds of LS present.
The neck appeared much narrower and
longer and when stretched appeared very long and gave an appearance reminiscent of a miniature
Wood Sandpiper. In Comparison the Little Stints often appeared neckless or bull-necked. The head
also appeared comparatively much smaller than nearby LS, which also appeared to have a rounder
head shape. The bill appeared narrower than the LS and was slightly downcurved. Most of the time
it was mainly covered in mud but a small paler yellowish area could be seen at times at the base of the
lower mandible. The legs appeared longer especially the tibia and this contributed to the bird
having a more tipped-forwards posture compared to the more horizontal posture of the LS. The
toes were very long, the central toe being much longer than the bill. The two outer toes and the
hind toe on this bird also appeared very long. One very noticeable feature that I have not read
about before was that the toes appeared to be much more widely splayed than those of the nearby
LS, and at times, especially in a rear view, the outer toes could almost appear to be at right
angles to the central toe. This can be seen on many of the photos here but is especially noticeable
on photo 9. I have noticed in the past that Least Sandpipers often appear to have the toes
more widely splayed than Little Stints for example though it has never seemed as extreme as on
this bird. Maybe this feature is related to the length of the toes. As the bird was feeding in a
drained fishpond the legs were covered in mud and it was difficult to determine the exact colour,
and they appeared very similar to nearby LS whose legs were also covered with mud,
though a small area of pale dull greenish-yellow was visible at the very top of the tibia. The
soles of the feet could be seen to be quite pale dull yellowish as the bird walked.
Later after the bird had been wading in water around the edges of the full fishpond the legs
could be clearly seen to be dull greenish-yellow (see link 6 above). In flight the toes could clearly be seen
projecting beyond the tail. The flight seemed steadier and less erratic that that of the LS.
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Age
The plumage of the bird appeared very worn and I believe it was a 2nd
calendar year bird, due to the extremely worn (juvenile) wing coverts and tertials virtually
lacking any edges, contrasting sharply with newer adult winter type Scapulars. Juveniles
apparently usually do not replace the wing coverts during the moult to first-winter (Shirihai,
Harris and Christie 1996). The bird appears to have started it's moult into its first full adult winter
plumage, as many of the upper scapulars and a few of the rearmost lower scapulars have been replaced.
Plumage
The overall general plumage tones appeared much browner than the LS. Compared to the quite well
marked head pattern of summer adults and juveniles of Long-toed, the head pattern of this bird
appeared quite subdued. The crown had a uniform pattern of dark centres distributed uniformly
over the whole crown rather than the darker central ridge and paler sides of LS. The ear coverts
had a diffuse darker area in the rear corner lacking the darker and more extensive ear covert
patch of a Least Sandpiper. The supercilium was most prominent and bulging in front of the eye
and became fainter with some narrow greyish streaking behind the eye.
A narrow dark line on the lores did not quite meet the eye or the bill but was joined narrowly to
the dark forehead feathering. A narrow whitish eye-ring was apparent, most prominent around the
rear half of the eye.
The nape appeared medium greyish brown and was less heavily streaked than the crown. This pattern
continued onto the mantle with some broader dark centres. The scapulars appeared the freshest
plumage feature of the bird. Presumably being replaced during the moult to adult winter plumage,
they contrasted sharply with the retained very worn juvenile wing coverts and tertials. On the
left side of the bird almost all the bottom row of lower scapulars were missing apart from just
one or two feathers worn almost to shaft streaks. All the remaining upper row of lower scapulars
were also extremely worn. Only the rearmost two of the upper row and the rearmost one of the lower
row, had been replaced with adult winter feathers. These had broad dark centres with a diffuse
division between these and the paler tips which became whitish towards the outer edge of the
feather. The upper scapulars appeared to be more completely moulted with a few old worn feathers
at the front and probably a few missing. On the right side of the bird the moult pattern of the
scapulars was similar to the left side but slightly more of the front rows of upper scapulars were also
retained worn feathers yet to be replaced by the adult winter type. All the upperwing
coverts appeared very worn and appeared as a uniform brown patch with a few darker shaft streaks
visible at close range. The tertials were also very worn and lacking edges appearing as a
darker area than the coverts. On two of the lower tertials, most protected from wear a narrow
rufous-buffish outer edge was visible. In flight a very narrow whitish wingbar and a dark central
rump with whitish sides, were visible.
The chin and throat appeared fairly clean whitish. Below this the breast appeared well streaked
forming a 'pectoral' band and giving the bird a passing resemblance to a miniature Pectoral
Sandpiper. Below this 'pectoral' band were a few fairly coarse streaks at the sides of the lower
breast and these continued more narrowly onto the flanks, but were mainly hidden by the wings so
it was difficult to see the exact extent. The rest of the underparts to the vent appeared clean
whitish.
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Identification summary
All
of the above photographs were taken at about 96X magnification and in the field it was actually
quite difficult at first to see exactly how long the toes were, so Jizz and plumage features were
important to identify the bird. The bird was noticeably smaller slimmer and generally browner
than the nearby Little Stints. A small area of dull yellowish was just visible at the top of the tarsi above the mud
staining, ruling out the other dark legged Stints.
The bird was seperated from the more similar Least Sandpiper by several features. There
was a pale yellowish area at the base of bill visible in some of the photos, difficult, but just
possible to see in the field. The long legs and long neck at times recalling a Wood Sandpiper
were more extreme than on Least Sandpiper. The new winter plumaged scapulars had broad dark
centres, these are usually narrower in Least. At the rear of the ear coverts was a faint
dark patch much less well marked than is usual on Least Sandpiper. Dark streaking extended onto
the flanks whereas it is usually confined to the breast on Least.
This was the second Long-toed Stint for Israel, the first being a juvenile trapped at Eilat in August 1991. It remained at the fishponds here at least until at least 23rd October and was seen by many Israelii birders
References
Identification of Stints and Peeps L Jonsson & PJ Grant British Birds 77 p293-315 (1984)
Identification of juvenile Red-necked and Long-toed Stints P Alstrom & U Olsson British Birds 82 p360-372
Identification of juvenile Long-toed Stint and Least Sanpiper P Doherty Birding World 4 No8 p279 - 281
The Macmillan Birders Guide to European and Middle Eastern BirdsH Shirihai, DA Christie & A Harris Macmillan 1996