This American Golden-Plover
was with five other P. dominica at Mitchell Lake Audubon Center, San Antonio, Texas on March 18, 2006. It has the shortest wings of any dominica that I have seen in real life (excluding a couple of very early juveniles that may not have finished growing their primaries.)
There is not much of a case for seriously considering Pacific Golden-PloverP. fulva, however there are a few features that are more typical of fulva than dominica:-
The bill is clearly longer than the primary extension beyond the tail tip, plus the gap between the tips of P10 and P9 is tiny, and the tip of the longest tertial on each side falls just short of the tip of P7:
The white barring in the upperside of the tail seems unusually prominent:
when not distorted by mud, the bill looks rather long and with a slight bulge near the tip:
The few fresh scaps and coverts are interesting in that the pale elements of these fresh scaps are strongly golden, while those of the fresh coverts are white:
