Long-billed Dowitcher

Limnodromus scolopaceusOrder: CHARADRIIFORMES Family: Sandpipers (Scolopacidae)

Codes: Common Name: LBDO Scientific Name: LIMSCO ITIS Taxonomic No.: 176679

Long-billed Dowitcher Winter - The winter Long-billed Dowitcher is gray overall with a lightly barred white belly.

Long-billed Dowitcher Juvenile - The juvenile Long-billed Dowitcher resembles winter adult but has a brown wash on the underparts.

Long-billed Dowitcher - The breeding adult Long-billed Dowitcher has dark, mottled upperparts, dark cap and eyestripe, short white eyebrow, and red-brown underparts with lightly barred flanks. Legs and feet are yellow-green.

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Long-billed Dowitcher

Long-billed Dowitcher: Large, stocky sandpiper with dark, mottled upperparts, dark cap and eyestripe, short white eyebrow, and red-brown underparts with lightly barred flanks. Bill is long, dark, and dagger like. Legs and feet are yellow-green. Swift direct flight, rapid wing beats.

● Song: "keek"

● Foraging & Feeding: Long-billed Dowitcher: Feeds primarily on insect larvae, earthworms, crustaceans, moss, plant parts, seeds, and snails. Probes in shallow water and on mudflats with a fast, repetitive up-down motion of its bill; frequently plunges head below the water.

● Breeding & nesting: Long-billed Dowitcher: Four brown to olive eggs with brown and gray blotches are laid in a shallow, elevated ground scrape lined with grass and moss, often built near water. Eggs are incubated for 20 days and is carried out by both parents during the first week, and then just by the male.

● Similar species: Long-billed Dowitcher: Short-billed Dowitcher has faint bars on flanks and slightly shorter bill. Common Snipe has heavily streaked upperparts and longer legs, uses different foraging techniques, and lacks the white rump.

Flight Pattern

Swift direct flight with rapid wing beats.

● Range & Habitat: Long-billed Dowitcher: Breeds in western Alaska and northwestern Canada. Spends winters along the coast from Washington and Virginia south to Guatemala. During breeding season lives on tundra; found on mudflats, marshes, and edges of freshwater ponds and marshes during winter.

^BreedingMonogamous, Small colonies

^PopulationCommon to uncommon

^MigrationMigratory

^Weight3.5 Ounces

4 and 6 letter alpha codes

The four letter common name alpha code is is derived from the first two letters of the common first name and the first two letters of common last name. The six letter species name alpha code is derived from the first three letters of the scientific name (genus) and the first three letters of the scientific name (species). See (1) below for the rules used to create the codes..

Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante (2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42 (Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). The list has been updated by Pyle and DeSante to reflect changes reported by the A.O.U from 2003 through 2006.

Field Guide to Birds of North America