Shorebird Topography Part 4: Shorebirds in flight

The fourth and final part of a series on shorebird topography. Part 4 focuses on the parts and feather tracts visible on a flying shorebird.
Shorebird Topography Part 1 - the head: • Shorebird Topography P...
Shorebird Topography Part 2 - the underparts and legs: • Shorebird Topography P...
Shorebird Topography Part 3 - the upperparts: • Shorebird Topography P...
For more resources on Malaysian shorebirds, go to shorebirds.my

[@xianlim77]

Thanks Dave

[@bubbajohn8131]

Excellent Dave. Thanks for all your wonderful uploads 👏

[@davebakewell6742]

Thanks. Your kind words are a motivation to produce more!

[@roggio.wildlife]

Very good work!

[@birdwatcherlubuski]

Superb! It was a worthwhile endavour, distinguishing wader topography from overall bird topography. Unlike in e.g. passerines, primary coverts are pretty much invisible, covered by scapulars. Likewise, tertials are pretty much invisible in wading birds in flight, as opposed to passerines. So there are noticable differences. Thanks for the effort!
BTW, Dave, Is there a set number of primaries/secondaries/tertiaries in wading birds? I mean like set in stone. In small passerines we always have 18 in total: 9p+6s+3t.

[@davebakewell6742]

Thanks for your encouraging words and great question, which led to me learning a lot! According to "Chamberlain's Waders" by Faansie Peacock and the Birds of the World website, all shorebirds have 10 "functioning" primaries and most have a vestigial outermost 11th (only Painted-Snipes, Jacanas and Buttonquails lack this). The number of secondaries varies from 10-20 (more in larger species like Thick-knees, Oystercatchers, Stilts and Crab-Plover) and the number of tertials from 3-5. The number of tail feathers is 12 in most genera, with the exception of Jacanas (only 10 tail feathers), Painted-Snipes (14) and "true" Snipes (12-28).

[@birdwatcherlubuski]

@@davebakewell6742 Wow, thanks for the extraordinarily detailed reply. 👍 I have one more question, if that's ok, but it has to do with bird anatomy in general, rather than waders specifically. Namely: for the life of me, I am still unsure about the tertials. Seen so many sources claiming that those 3-5 (depending on the family/genus) innermost flight feathers, that you can observe on top of secondaries and primaries in a closed wing are not 'true tertials' but simply last few secondaries. True tertials being those NOT stemming from the ulna but from the skin underneath the humerus (hence most sources claim tertials are not true flight feathers, due to their not attaching to the bone, unlike primaries and secondaries). I'm still confused. Which is which. Are the tertials you identify in your videos true tertials? If so, how do those 'false' tertials look like, and what are their distinguishing features - why would ornitholigists differentiate them from the remaining secondaries?

[@davebakewell6742]

@birdwatcherlubuski You come up with some really good questions! After doing a bit of searching on this, I can't come up with a definitive answer for you. The way Birds of the World phrases it is something like "15-16 secondaries, including 3-5 tertials", suggesting that they are on the fence about what tertials really are, and how many there are. In these videos, I have somewhat simplified things, to make them of as much practical use to beginner birders as possible. For example, I didn't label humeral coverts, which are barely ever visible in the field. Perhaps, hopefully, someone reading these comments might be able to give us a better answer!

[@birdwatcherlubuski]

@@davebakewell6742 Yes, let's hope so. Thank you for your time, Dave. 😊

[@markrigg6623]

This video is very low in volume.

[@davebakewell6742]

@@markrigg6623 Yes. Sorry about that. I tried various mics

[@markrigg6623]

@@davebakewell6742 No dramas. Just wanted to make sure you were aware of it. 👍