Putative long toed stint in Qatar (1 Viewer)

[mjgrunwell]

Found this wader today, with lots of little stint but just not right, plumage wise just dark and blotchy but the jizz was longer legged, more hunched up, longer necked. At one point I was so frustrated with my ability to call it I said it must be a runt ruff, then a dunlin walked past and it was smaller than dunlin.
In flight the toes appeared to project beyond the tail. The legginess, long toes and hunched shoulder jizz just looks different.
The legs looked dark rather than pale but could be just dirty.

Please could a wader expert just tell me this is a grossly odd little stint?

 

[birdboybowley]

Certainly not a Long-toed Stint......

 

[halftwo]

Certainly not a Long-toed Stint......

Agreed. And why not Little? (which is most likely).

 

[CAU]

Unusually long-legged Little Stints do occur, check this one for reference:
http://www.birdingisrael.com/birdNews/newsAlert/long-toed-stint/mysteryUnraveled.htm

 

[rockfowl]

Little Stint for me I'm afraid

 

[lewis20126]

100% Little Stint

cheers, a

 

[mjgrunwell]

Thank you for your comments

It was interesting to discover that some little stints do have toes that extend beyond the tail.

It is clear now that this is an aberrant little stint, the legginess and distinctive hunched up stance may perhaps be due to a genetic mutation?
It is also strange that this bird was very aggresive to other little stints and the last to flush when approached.

I have seen this suite of characters before in calidrids generally:

Lanky or skinny, overly tame, aggressive to others of the same species, weird head shape, odd bare part colouration.

Maybe if we see 3 or more of these features it should act as a warning that it is just an aberrant individual.

Best regards from the State of Qatar.
Michael Grunwell

 

[FXM]

Hi Mike,

Good to hear from you.

I always remember watching Little Stints at Tophill Low. We used to get great views of them at low-level and were often drawn to the (relatively) long-legged appearance they could display. There is a tendency to believe they always appear dumpy with short legs. Not so.

Keep the posts coming.

Cheers

Frank

 

[rockfowl]

. We used to get great views of them at low-level and was often drawn to the (relatively) long-legged appearance they could display. There is a tendency to believe they always appear dumpy with short legs. Not so.

Agree with Frank, certainly helpful in sorting out an odd Little amongst Red-necked

 

[JANJ]

Still relevant.

http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/NAB/v041n02/p00213-p00236.pdf

JanJ

 

[allanpcameron]

Hi Mike
My sister lives in Doha and I'm trying to come over the end of January into February 2011, is there good birding in Qatar at that time of year?