| Feature | American G.P. | Pacific G.P. |
| Build | slender body (short neck, large head) | somewhat plump body, slender neck (smaller head) |
| Bill | Relatively small. Backwards projection reaches to rear end of eye | Relatively long. Backwards projection reaches well behind the eye |
| Bare tibia | = half/whole bill length (shorter than bill) | = or > bill length |
| Wing tip | Pointed (1 primary). projects well past tail | Less pointed (2 primaries). projects past tail |
| * Primary projection (vs tertials) | Long, (4) 5 (6) primaries visible | Short, (2) 3 (4) primaries visible |
| *Tip of longest tertial | To inner fourth of tail | To outer third of tail, or beyond |
| Toe projection beyond tail in flight | None, or very little | Prominent, most of toes visible |
| Alarm call | TUli | tjuitt |
Here is a quote from David James, a respected Ornithologist
from Queensland, Australia, who authored the HANZAB account for
Pacific Golden Plover. I asked him about "long-winged PAGPs",
and my bird in particular:-
".... I then looked at the photos on your web site. My
quick initial impression is that the tertials are not fully grown
and hence the gap between them and the tail is a bit longer than
expected for fulva. The primary extension beyond the tail does
not seem particularly unusual for fulva to me; I don't actually
think that primary extension beyond the tail is particularly important,
and it is only now that I realise, the whole point is to determine
if fulva really can have primaries extending well beyond the tail
tip. Sure they can. The bird on your web page would attract
a bit of cynicism if someone claimed is as a dominica here.
(But please don't misquote me as saying it is fulva - I haven't
given it enough attention)."
- I have highlighted in bold the important conclusions
we can draw from his remarks. Namely, this bird's structure (especially
it's longish wings) is perfectly normal for some populations of
PAGP (e.g. those wintering in Australia - and perhaps breeding
mostly in east-central Siberia), despite it being unlike the vast
majority of PAGPs seen along the western seaboard on North America
(which are a different breeding population). It may well be that
other, similarly-structured PAGPs (from Siberian breeding grounds)
occur in the western flyway, but are identified as AMGPs mostly
because of their long wings.
At any rate, I feel that the balance is in favor of this bird
being a long-winged PAGP rather than a AMGP that breaks all the
other rules for AMGP/PAGP identication.
Also, I feel this is a catalyst to examine migrant LGPs more carefully,
and to check on known breeding/wintering populations that the
above criteria continue to hold up as the sample sizes increase.
Here are some new images of the Fort Worth LGP:
Note the black subterminal mark to the fresh feathers tends to
look like an inverted crown, due to the black curling up the edges
towards the tip, laterally; on checking a number of photos, this
pattern for the black seems more regular in PAGP than AMGP - where
the inverted black "hat" lacks the curls up the edges.
Note also the largest new feather (just right of center) has a
dull pale patch basally from the black "crown", such
that the crown is completely separated from the inner black mark;
I have found this on two PAGPs, but not (yet) on any image of
AMGP - can anyone lead me to such a AMGP image?
