[Maine-birds] American Avocet, Sagadahoc Bay, Georgetown, 21 Aug (today)

Mike Fahay submitted an eBird report (http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S31184516) with photos of an American Avocet in Sagadahoc Bay (see list for map point).

Although reported as an adult in fading alternate plumage, the photos show a juvenile with some preformative molt.

American Avocets are unusual among shorebirds in that the juveniles more or less resemble (or mimic?) adults in breeding plumage. They can be tricky to tell apart. Mike's photos show the inner webs of the inner primaries with white margins, fresh tertials and a few new scapulars; these features all indicative of a young bird. The long and comparatively straight bill lacking a strong recurve means the bird is a male. Some have suggested that this mimicry of the adult plumage is perhaps so predators cannot target young birds as "easy" prey. Whatever the case, as Dennis Paulson says, the orange head and neck of breeding and juvenile avocets "merely adds distinction to distinctiveness."

Louis Bevier

Fairfield