[CT Birds] Ruff photos, sex?

[Nick Bonomo]

Hopefully others will get better shots of the plumage and size
comparisons because mine are almost useless! Regarding males in April
coming into plumage a bit late, check out this probable first-year
male from Newburyport, MA last year. Originally thought to be a
female, male plumage features began to appear around mid/late-April.
Note the similarity in size (relative to Gr Yellowlegs) to the
Westport bird.

http://www.nebirdsplus.org/Ruff.htm

Nick Bonomo
Orange, CT

On Sat, Apr 19, 2008 at 6:52 AM, greg hanisek <ctgregh at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I hesitated to suggest the bird's sex when I posted yesterday because of
> some ambiguity (on my part, I doubt the bird is conflicted :)
>
> I agree with Nick that the bird seemed on the large side (just a bit smaller
> than the Greater Yellowlegs) which would suggest a male. However, in the
> morning we saw the plumge in good detail, and it showed no male traits. It
> lacked any white on the neck or face and it showed no color on the grayish
> bill. The plumage was a pretty good match for a female in breeding plumage,
> but I don't know how closely a first-year male or even some males in basic
> plumage could match this. However, I think an adult male at this date should
> show at least some signs of molt into alternate. I've seen a number of Ruffs
> over the years in April at the formerly famous Pedricktown, N.J., site that
> were in spectacular male nuptial plumage.
>
> Greg Hanisek
>
> Nick Bonomo <nbonomo at gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks again to Frank Mantlik for the great find this morning.
>
> I was lucky enough to see the Ruff this afternoon after Meredith
> Sampson and Penny Solum relocated the bird at low tide, when 25+
> yellowlegs were scattered along the river. My looks were quite distant
> and poor, but thanks to digiscoping I was able to grab a few crummy
> images, which are posted here:
> http://picasaweb.google.com/nbonomo/Ruff
>
> Our distance and lighting conditions did not allow any plumage details
> to be discerned, but going on size alone I believe this bird to be a
> male. In the field and in the photos, the bird's body size was very
> similar to the surrounding Greater Yellowlegs. Ruffs exhibit dramatic
> sexual dimorphism, with males being close in size to Greater
> Yellowlegs and females closer to Lesser Yellowlegs. However I do not
> have extensive experience with the species, and I would appreciate any
> comments on this bird's sex.
>
> One very useful feature, when picking this bird out from a distance,
> were the stiff-looking mantle feathers that often stick up when the
> Ruff is bent over feeding.
>
> Nick Bonomo
> Orange, CT
>
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