User help

New England Shorebird Guide

With the support of Bird Observer staff, we have created a free online visual guide to shorebirds of New England. Thirty-seven species accounts are currently online and active.

Shorebirds, in the North American context, are plovers and sandpipers as well American Oystercatcher, American Avocet, Black-necked Stilt and the jacanas. Of these, we have included in the guide species that occur predictably in New England as well as a few that are scarce or rare vagrants.

The guide is designed primarily as a visual aid to be used in the field on your smart phone; it is also viewable on a tablet or a computer screen. Use this short URL to get to it directly: https://www.birdobserver.org/NESG.

The link takes you to a brief introductory paragraph followed by a gallery of shorebird thumbnail images.

Navigation

The thumbnail images are scaled so you can judge the size of a target bird in comparison to other shorebirds. Each bird appears in a typical setting. Size information—in inches and centimeters—is also given in the thumbnail panel.

Below each thumbnail image is a View this ID Guide button. Tap on this button to link to a species account, which is divided into a visual gallery and a written species account.

Below the thumbnail gallery, there is an introductory page giving some useful hints on how to identify shorebirds as well as general information about typical habitats, behavior and seasonal changes.

Visual gallery

In the visual gallery, images for nearly all species are arranged as follows:

Winter (basic) plumage.
Spring and summer (alternate or breeding) plumage.
Variations in plumage: as the season advances from spring to summer, alternate plumage begins to wear and molt.
If a bird breeds in our area, e.g., Piping Plover, images of eggs or chicks.
Fall molting adults.
Juveniles and molting juveniles.
Flight shots.
Comparison images for similar shorebirds.

Using the visual gallery

The primary aim of the New England Shorebird Guide is to provide detailed images of shorebirds. When browsing the visual gallery, tap the image you’re interested in to open a detailed, high-resolution version. This can be further expanded:

iPhone or iPad: Use two fingers to expand image.
Computer or laptop: Use mouse to expand image.
Android: Try using two fingers to expand image. If this doesn’t work, depending on the Android software version, there are several techniques here.

The plumage section and the similar species section contain links to photos. When you click on the link, a thumbnail appears on the right. The linked images are the same ones as in the visual gallery. The thumbnails can be expanded in a similar manner, as above.

Species accounts

In the species account, for most species, information is organized as follows:

An explanation of basic, alternate and juvenile plumage terminology.
Brief, illustrated example of each of the plumage categories mentioned above.
Table of sizes and dimensions.
Sample calls or songs with links to the xeno-canto collection of nature sounds.
Plumage and other characteristics with numerous links to the visual gallery. This section is organized to first show the most important and obvious identification characteristics of a species, followed by increasingly difficult or obscure features.
Breeding range, migration, wintering range, habitat gives a brief summary of what is known about the ranges and migrations of the bird, its typical habitats while in those ranges, and its food preferences at different seasons.
Similar species describes and, where possible, illustrates similarities and differences among potentially confusing species.

Placing New England Shorebird Guide (NESG) icon on your smart phone screen

You can place an icon on your smart phone screen to access the shorebird guide with one tap:

Add to your iPhone screen

In Safari web browser, type https://www.birdobserver.org/NESG.

When the shorebird guide opens, go to the bottom of the webpage and click on the share / download icon (red arrow):

Scroll down the list of share / upload options and select Add to Home Screen (red arrow):

On the ensuing screen, click on Add (red arrow) to complete the step:

The NESG icon should now appear on your iPhone screen.

Add to your Android screen

Click on or type in https://www.birdobserver.org/NESG.

Click on the 3 vertical dots in the upper right corner of your screen.

When the small black window opens, click on the Add to Home Screen function.

The NESG icon should now appear on your Android screen.

Magnifying shorebird guide images on Android phones

The primary aim of the New England Shorebird Guide is to provide detailed images of shorebirds. The images do not necessarily reveal all the details until you open the high-resolution version.

When you choose an image in the visual gallery, tap on it to open the high-resolution image, which is surrounded by a black border. Then use two fingers to expand the image.

If your Android phone does not support the two-finger pinch or spread gesture, below are two methods to magnify the images.

Method 1: Android magnification feature

Open Settings and scroll down to tap on Accessibility:

On the Accessibility screen, choose Magnification:

Turn on Magnification shortcut. Once enabled, a shortcut is visible on your screen (red arrow):

When the shortcut is activated, an orange border appears, indicating that magnification is on:

How to use magnification

To zoom: When viewing images in the visual gallery, remember to first tap on the image to bring up the high-resolution version, surrounded by a black border. With the orange border visible, use a two-finger pinch or spread gesture to adjust the zoom:

Method 2: Using desktop site mode

This method loads the full desktop version (instead of the smart phone version) of the New England Shorebird Guide. This enables the standard two-finger pinch or spread gesture.

With the shorebird guide open in your phone’s Chrome browser, tap the three dots (red arrow) in the upper-right corner to open a menu:

Scroll down in the menu and check the box next to Desktop site (red arrow):

The page will reload as the desktop version, and you can now use a two-finger pinch or spread gesture to zoom in or out.

When viewing images in the visual gallery, remember to tap on the image to open the high-resolution version, which is surrounded by a black border. Then zoom in.

Chrome will often remember this setting for this website, so you may not need to repeat these steps on each visit.