FWIW, I’ve thought some of the SB Dowitchers we see in Island Park are
of the Prairie/hendersoni ssp because of the limited black markings on
the flanks. I’ve sent photos around to west coast shorebirders and
received no support for hendersoni. Apparently many birds of the west
coast/caurinus ssp look very much like these birds and can be
confidently assigned to that taxon. If memory serves the entirely orange
underparts of hendersoni was a key point of distinction and our birds
all had at least some white below. Not sure about some of the brighter
juveniles we see in fall but that’s what I learned about our spring SBDOs.

Cliff

On 06/10/2017 10:10 AM, ‘Larry Arnold’ larnold47@cableone.net [ible] wrote:
> Wish Sibley would include ssp names, not just ranges, so I could
> cross-examine the bird 😉 because it strikes me most as L. g.
> hendersoni (ssp of SB) per Kaufman, based on the appearance of flanks
> and belly in the first photo below. But is this a stretch, since the
> range of hendersoni is more Prairie than Pacific (where L. g. caurinus
> lurks), even tho Kaufman drops a little hint on pg 69 that hendersoni
> is not impossible hereabouts?

—
Cliff and Lisa Weisse
Island Park, Idaho
cliffandlisa@octobersetters.com