I photographed this juvenile Least Sandpiper
at Village Creek, Fort Worth, Texas on September 10th, 1999; note
the wide, dark forecrown meeting the dark of the lores and separating
the supercilia; also note that while the general upperparts patten
looks normal for LESA, the visible wing coverts have a pale fringe
at the tip that is broken by the dark shaft streak:
In the next two pics note that the dark lores do not reach the
eye-ring - i.e. there is a small break just before the eye:
In the field I was not able to detect any pale at the base of
the mandible, but these two images show a tiny patch of ochre
just beyond the feathering:
the innermost greater coverts show a shallow notch:
For comparison take a look at this classic
juvenile Long-toed Stint; there some similarities but a number
of differences - however not all juvenile LTSTs look like this,
and a few are much more like LESA in the color of the wing covert
fringes.
