Wayne R. Petersen

Kicking off the 2025 At a Glance season, identifying this mystery bird will likely be straightforward to many birders. It is clearly a shorebird of some type, standing next to the rather obvious Semipalmated Plover (Charadrius semipalmatus) in the background. The long slim legs and slender curved bill of the bird in the foreground further reinforce this shorebird impression. Compared to the plover, however, the mystery bird is slightly larger and trimmer, and has longer legs. An enlarged view of the color photograph on the Bird Observer website shows that the plover has light colored legs and the mystery bird clearly has dark legs.

Another obvious difference between the two shorebird species is that the plover’s back is a uniform brownish color and the dorsal coloration of the mystery bird is lighter gray. It also exhibits a variegated pattern on the wing coverts and scapular feathers, which the plover in the background does not.