Date: 5/4/26 4:25 pm From: Ian MacGregor <00000489141846bd-dmarc-request...> Subject: Dowitchers
I was with Jacque Brown at Charlie Craig today. The most exciting thing for me was my first Arkansas Hudsonian Godwit. A few minutes before we came across a couple of dowitchers. We both thought they were Long-billed, but when I tried to add the photo of one of the birds to my Ebird list, Merlin rejected it as a Short-billed. Also in the picture of both, Merlin thinks the bottom bird is Short-billed.
I am including three pictures:, the bird accepted as a Long-billed, the one rejected as a Long_billed by eBird, and a picture of them both together
On the single bird which is possibly a Short-billed, the bill does look short, but I that could be due to the camera angle. In the picture of the two birds together. I don't see much difference in bill length. What a I do see is the bird eBird thinks is a Short-billed has a few larger spots on its wing coverts.
Merin photo id is by no means perfect. So it could simply be wrong, and bit birds are indeed Long-billed, but if one of the birds is a Short-billed, what clinches that id
