This bird appears quite pale above, sandy even, as evidenced by the contrast on the head between black crown stripe and light brown rest of head. The most striking feature to me is the black loral area of even thickness, not "pinched" which reaches the gape on the right side, though not apparently on the left side...perhaps the bird still has a ways to go with molting. Many field guides used to point to this feature as diagnostic for Common Ringed, though, more extensive sources now show more examples of variability in both species. Semipalmated very often shows a distinctly "pinched" loral look or even white area there between eye and bill, quite unlike this bird. I've not seen a Semipalmated with this feature to the gape...on one side anyway.
The bill shape is often described as "stubby" for Semipalmated and longer and of more even length throughout for Common Ringed, and perhaps more extensively orange for Common Ringed. This bird has a large amount of orange on a bill that looks long-ish to me, though the orange seems less on Michelle's photo.
The breast band feature, according to most sources I've checked, is not a reliable feature of being thick or thin for either species, as it's not only variable among individuals and sexes and is also seasonal, but changes with posture.
The webbing between the middle and inner toes is basically absent in Common Ringed and in Semipalmated ranges from slight to perhaps even absent in some...it would take an excellent photo to determine this feature if the bird weren't in the hand.
Michelle's photo shows the eye in better light, but I don't see a yellow eye-ring which Semipalmated should show. There is also some white around the eye...still molting, I guess. Common Ringed usually shows more white in front of and toward the eye.
The vocalizations are described as slightly different and a good close-range recording would possibly be a clinching piece of evidence, though, there may be variability with that as well...experienced researchers can probably weigh in on that.
I've seen Common Ringed in western Europe, though never studied them carefully there. I've seen many thousands of Semipalmateds during waterbird surveys mainly in Virginia.
All-in-all, to me, an interesting bird.
Please feel free to share comments to me at taberzz@aol.com and I can update the Blog.
Brian Taber
