The Good Looks are Going Fast

The top picture (by Charlee Manguso) was an early spring picture.

The second picture is mid-summer male that is trading his breeding plumage (jargon: alternate) for drab non-breeding plumage (jargon: basic) before he becomes flightless during the wing molt.

Basic plumage males look so much like females that even professional ornithologist sometimes miss-label males in museums as females.

Frank