Leucustic long-toed stint? (17 Viewers)

[Muratfaik]

A friend of mine asked me what this bird is.. taken yesterday in Tuz Lake-Turkey. I wonder if it is a long-toed stint or another stint?

 

[Bubbs]

Very strange but I’m wondering if it’s a Sanderling. I can’t see a hind toe.

 

[Muratfaik]

Very strange but I’m wondering if it’s a Sanderling. I could of course be way off the mark.

I thougth same but, wings are longer than tail and this does not fit sanderling..

 

[Muratfaik]

I asked a photo that shows hind toe, and here is the screen shot. It seem there is a hind toe?

 

[Grahame Walbridge]

Leucistic Little Stint seems most likely IMO. There is the slightest projection (tips of toes) beyond the tail which is fine for Little but at odds with Long-toed. In any case, the toes are not long enough for the latter.

A simple instance of size illusion in the 1st image.

Grahame

 

[Muratfaik]

Leucistic Little Stint seems most likely IMO. There is the slightest projection (tips of toes) beyond the tail which is fine for Little but at odds with Long-toed. In any case, the toes are not long enough for the latter.

A simple instance of size illusion in the 1st image.

Grahame

Grahame,

The head of the bird seems too spherical for little stint. I agree toe projection in flight is not enough for long toed, but may be due to lower quality photo. So I asked another flight photo. On the other hand the 5th photo shows this leucustic bird and little stint together. But little stint seems quite smaller although it is coloser to the photographer. Normally size difference should not be more than %10 between individuals, but it seems more. Here is a low quality video, that shows feeding behaviour of the bird. Is it little stint feeding behaviour?


View attachment 316e9279-6d10-4ba5-b0a5-4a946d4fa3ba.mov

 

[Muratfaik]

Some more photographs just came. Please notice the eye differences between little stint and leucustic one. It has quite small eye…

 

[Muratfaik]

There is no web between fingers. There is toe. So, sanderling and semipalmated are eliminated. Bill tip is thin, what about baird’s sandpiper?

 

[Bubbs]

Any more ideas folks?

 

[Brian J Small]

Hybrid?

 

[johnallcock]

Temminck's Stint? That's the species that I thought of watching the behaviour in the video.
It's also one of the commoner stints in Turkey I think. The straight bill, short neck and long wings fit... but it does look perhaps a bit too long-legged?

 

[Andy Adcock]

Some more photographs just came. Please notice the eye differences between little stint and leucustic one. It has quite small eye…

I think that's an illusion caused by the fact that the surrounding structures of the eye such as the orbital ring, are not visible.

 

[Muratfaik]

Yesterday I drive 9 hours from Göcek-Muğla to Aksaray to found this bird. I found her and about six hours I took some higher quality photos and videos.. since my bird library is in my hometown, for now I will share some detailed footage that I believe will help identification of this bird…here is first:




This photo clearly shows that tail is shorter than wings; which does not fit Temminck’s Stint…

 

[Muratfaik]

The bill base is so tiny that also does not fit Temminck’s.


Also it is like pressed from side..

 

[Muratfaik]

Seconderies are quite long, seems longer than WP stints (wing is thick).



This also seems like Bird’s:

 

[Muratfaik]

Mouth (Bill base) detail seems also different than little/Temminck’s:

 

[Muratfaik]

I also noticed two minute details:

1-pre-nuptial/post juvenile moulting calander is different in Temminck’s Stint and Baird.. there were tens of Temminck’s stints on the field yesterday and none of them have an abraded feathers. But this leucistic one missed one pf her secondaries and shows heavily abraded primary fringes. This may show tha has a different moulting time…

2-there is a white patch on white loral area. I mean different whites ontogether. This is not a shading issue. This fits Baird’s loral patch. Some birds i. e. coal tit’s ear plaques and white headed duck’s white on head, burns white area in the image. The photos that comes two days ago taken with nikon d850 an my photos taken with nikon Z9. Two different sensor technologies. One of them is more sensitve to uv glowing that is typical for some birds feathers.

 

[tconzemi]

I am in no way a wader specialist. But I would like to emphasise that white feathers will abrade much faster than pigmented ones. In the flying bird #15 you can clearly see that most tail feathers are shorter than the few with just tiny spikes on tip showing original length. This means that the real wing projection was shorter when tail was still intact. And no way to tell something about moult strategy.
I think Little Stint is still a strong candidate but this thread is very interesting as we really have to consider proportions only.

 

[Welsh Peregrine]

I think it is also worth considering whether it is more likely to be an abberant bird in normal range, or an abberant bird out of range! (Of course the very unlikely combination can happen; Varied Thrush in Cornwall for example).

 

[Muratfaik]

Abbrasing considerable, but I am not convinced for bleaching since two reasons; there is black feathers on back which is not bleached but abraded.. and the scond one; normally Temminck’s Stint has sesonally yellow legs, but has always black nails. If we look at this birds nail, they are orangeish.. It orients the case, the color difference to genetically suppressed eumelanin matabolism, not chemically bleaching.

When we consider abrasion; the abraded feathers caused by the lack of moulting hormone. In this case bird can not change its feathers and they are abraded. Japanese onagodori chicken breed is a good example for this. This race do not moult their feathers. But phenotipically almost same german chicken race Phoenix change its feathers every year.

Since the lack of one/two seconder, I understard that our leucustic bird change her feathers but in a different timeline.