Short-billed Dowitcher

Limnodromus griseus

Order CHARADRIIFORMES - Family SCOLOPACIDAE

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

A medium to large shorebird with a long bill, the Short-billed Dowitcher is a common and conspicous migrant that uses a "sewing-machine" method of foraging across the mud flats. Its long bill is short only in comparison with the very similar Long-billed Dowitcher.

Cool Facts

• The nest and eggs of this species eluded discovery until 1906, and even that information was overlooked for a long while because they were attributed to the Long-billed Dowitcher. The nesting grounds of the eastern race were not discovered until the late 1950s.

• Although both sexes share incubation of the eggs, only the male takes care of the young once they hatch.

Description

• Size: 25-29 cm (10-11 in)
• Weight: 90-120 g (3.18-4.24 ounces)

• A medium-sized shorebird with a bill twice as long as its head.
• Moderately long, pale legs.

• White wedge up back in flight.
• Tail barred black and white.
• Leans forward and probes into mud energetically with an action resembling a sewing machine.
• Breeding (Alternate) Plumage: Geographically variable. Underparts orange to rusty, extending from throat to undertail in prairie subspecies, but only to the lower chest on the other two subspecies. Small, heavy spots on chest, becoming lines and bars on flanks.
• Nonbreeding (Basic) Plumage: Gray back, neck, and chest. Gray barring on flanks.

Sex Differences

Females have longer bills and paler orange markings.

Immature

Juvenal plumage with buffy chest and flanks, less spotting and barring than breeding adults. Back feathers dark centered with broad buffy edges, giving a slightly scaly appearance. Tertials dark with orange pattern inside ("tiger-striped").

Similar Species

• Wilson's Snipe has similar proportions, but has dark rump and tail and golden stripes down back.
• Stilt Sandpiper has longer legs, a shorter, slightly down-curved bill, and a white rump that does not extend up the back.
• Long-billed Dowitcher is extremely similar and difficult to distinguish in most plumages. Juvenile long-billed lacks the tiger-striping in the tertials, and has plain gray ones instead.

Sound

Flight call a melodic "tu" repeated up to four times.

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Breeds in three areas in Alaska and Canada: Coastal southern Alaska to central British Columbia; northern Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba; and southern Hudson Bay to Labrador.

Winter Range

Winters locally along both coasts from northern California and southern Virginia south through Central America to South America.

Habitat

• Breeds in muskegs of taiga to timberline, and barely onto subarctic tundra.
• Winters on coastal mud flats and brackish lagoons.
• In migration prefers saltwater tidal flats, beaches, and salt marshes.
• Found in freshwater mud flats and flooded agricultural fields.

Food

Aquatic invertebrates. On breeding grounds eats fly larvae, other insects, snails, and some seeds.

Behavior

Foraging

Probes deeply into soft substances to the depth of the bill, sometimes submerging the head. Food is captured and swallowed under the mud, except for worms, which are pulled to the surface. Feeds in water up to the depth of the belly.

Courtship

Male sings in flight on breeding grounds.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Nest a simple bowl in thick vegetation, usually on top of a clump of sedge, lined with dried grass, leaves, twigs, and ptarmigan feathers.

Egg Description

Light greenish-brown or live green with brown spotting of various intensity, always denser at the large end.

Clutch Size

4 eggs.

Condition at Hatching

Downy chicks able to walk immediately, can swim as soon as they are dry. Leave nest when all are hatched. Not fed by parents.

Conservation Status

No special status.

Other Names

Bécassin roux (French)
Agijeta gris, Costurero pico corto (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

Jehl, J. R., Jr., J. Klima, and R. E. Harris. Short-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus griseus). In The Birds of North America, No. 564 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.