{"id":2229,"date":"2016-01-29T00:15:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-29T07:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ocbirds.com\/?p=2229"},"modified":"2016-01-29T00:16:11","modified_gmt":"2016-01-29T07:16:11","slug":"comparing-a-least-sandpiper-and-a-western-sandpiper-1-28-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbirds.com\/?p=2229","title":{"rendered":"Comparing a Least Sandpiper and a Western Sandpiper 1-28-2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Comparing a Least Sandpiper and a Western Sandpiper to the untrained eye can be a bit of a challenge especially in basic\/winter plumage and if solo.\u00a0 In this photo, taken on 1-28-2016 at Irvine Lake in Irvine, California we can see both side by side.<\/p>\n

The Least Sandpiper, typically shows its yellow legs that can make IDing this species far more simple.\u00a0 However a leg ID is not always available as in this image where the mud obfuscates its color.\u00a0 Our next analization point might be the size.\u00a0 The Least (on the left) is noticeably smaller.\u00a0 Also it’s bill is considerably shorter and as a 3rd ID point, its chest shows more extensive light brown plumage to its upper belly.\u00a0 The Western Sandpiper in contrast shows a larger bill, noticeably more white on its chest and belly and the Western Sandpiper is larger in size.<\/p>\n

Hope this helps some of you out there facing this ID dilemma between the two.<\/p>\n

\"Comparing<\/a>
“Comparing a Least Sandpiper and a Western Sandpiper in basic plumage”
Photo taken at Irvine Lake, Irvine, CA on January 28, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Comparing a Least Sandpiper and a Western Sandpiper to the untrained eye can be a bit of a challenge especially in basic\/winter plumage and if solo.\u00a0 In this photo, taken on 1-28-2016 at Irvine Lake in Irvine, California we can … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plovers-sandpipers-allies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Rhss-zX","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbirds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbirds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbirds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbirds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbirds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2229"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ocbirds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2232,"href":"https:\/\/ocbirds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2229\/revisions\/2232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbirds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbirds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbirds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}