ID Please

Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge, Washington.

Kind of a tough shot to make a positive ID (at least for me) between GREATER yellow legs and LESSER yellow legs. The size makes me think LESSER as it looks diminutive, but the bill length and location point almost 100% to GREATER which is the ID i'd go with.

- Luke

A different angle.

Luke is right. Greater Yellowlegs, Ryan. The bill length (greater than twice the head length), the slight upward curve of the bill, and the "chunkier" feel of the bird all point to Greater Yellowlegs and not Lesser. Additionally, in your part of the country, this time of the year, Greaters are much, much more common than Lessers.

I find the upward curve to the bill to be the most useful field mark. The calls are quite different, but don't show well in photos.

The larger version makes it much easier as you can really compare bill length to head size. Nice find, especially at the northern extreme of this species winter range.

- Luke

Thank you very much, I appreciate the feeback!