On the 29th of June this year I visited Rottnest Island and saw these Stints. In Europe I would automatically think these are Little Stints, but as far as I know Little Stints are not common in Australia. So this suggest these Stints are probably Red-necked Stints. Can somebody help me to identify these birds?
Henk van de Bovenkamp, The Netherlands
I cant help you Henk - far too tricky for me, and for real experts too ...
From the Australian Bird Guide 2017 entry for Little Stint 'Probably an annual visitor but seldom recorded due to close similarity to Red-necked Stint. The two are near identical in non-br plummages... Probably a regular visitor to Aus,but under recorded due to ID difficulties; banding recordings suggest 1 Little Stint here to every ~ 7000 Red Necked.'
Thanks for your honest comment and for the entry from the Australian Bird Guide which expresses the difficulty!
They look good for Red-necked Stints.