Id help Needed.

[Paul]

First of all this is a horrible shot, I was not prepared to take any picures as I was driving down the road and almost ran him over, I grabbed this one shot with my 100-400 hanging out the window so it sucks and it is super cropped. I have never seen this bird before and my bird book is not here yet. Can anyone tell me what this critter is?

I found him in the nature conservetory birding area south of HWY 10 near the buffalo River. I will go back and try some better shots when I have time. They just burned the prarie down so in a few weeks there will be some awesome new blooming going on and should be very active. Anyway here he is:

Was Small, maybe 6-7" high, there were 2 of them.

[Dave S]

That would be a Greater Yellow Legs.

I first thought a Lesser, but after reviewing pics of the two, this bird seems taller than 10".

[Paul]

Thanks LEP7MM, I did some looking online for the Greater Yellowlegs and you are correct. Thank You. I had just never seen one before, and since my picture didn't turn out very well I was not sure if someone would be able to recognize it.

[Dave S]

The Greater and Lesser look very similar with the exception of the height difference between the two and the bill is slightly up-turned and longer on the Greater.

The two pics I have in a bird book shows slightly different markings on the head and neck, but I would guess there will be some variation from one bird to the next.

[JayinMN]

Paul, take a look at this post. Me and Johnnyredhorse took pictures of presumably the same bird since it was the same day, same lake, but we were there at different times. The over all opinion is that its also a Greater yellow leg.

http://www.fishingminnesota.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/1376709#Post1376709