Common Greenshank

Tringa nebulariaOrder: CHARADRIIFORMES Family: Sandpipers (Scolopacidae)

Codes: Common Name: COMG Scientific Name: TRINEB ITIS Taxonomic No.: 176624

Common Greenshank Breeding Male Small Portrait

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Overview

Common Greenshank: Large sandpiper with scaled gray-brown upperparts, white rump, and white underparts, streaked and spotted with brown on flanks and sides. Yellow-green legs. Bill is slightly upturned. Eats small fish, insects and larvae. Swift direct flight with clipped wing beats.

Range and Habitat

Common Greenshank: Found in Europe and Asia on mudflats, wetlands, bogs, shallow marshes, ponds. Rare visitor to western Aleutians, Pribilof, and St. Lawrence Islands of Alaska; also recorded in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland in fall and winter. Nests in taiga and forest areas; winters on a wide range of wetland habitats, both coastal and inland, but prefers estuaries to the open coast.

Topo Map: Sandpiper-like Body

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"tew-tew-tew", "too-hoo, too-hoo"

Interesting Facts

The Common Greenshank males arrive first at their breeding site and, after establishing a territory, will begin display flights, rising up and down in the air, while singing richly and sometimes tumbling and turning. Females may join in the display.

They stand tall and erect and may bob their heads when alarmed.

Some authorities have suggested that they and the Greater Yellowlegs constitute a superspecies.

A group of sandpipers has many collective nouns, including a "bind", "contradiction", "fling", "hill", and "time-step" of sandpipers.

Bird Term Glossary

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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.

Common Greenshank

● Song: "tew-tew-tew", "too-hoo, too-hoo"

● Foraging & Feeding: Common Greenshank: Eats small fish and insects. Forages while running in shallow water or wading belly-deep.

● Breeding & nesting: Common Greenshank: Four light gray to buff eggs with red brown spots are laid on the ground close to a fallen log, stump, or hummock. Nest is lined with moss. Eggs are incubated for 24 days.

● Similar species: Common Greenshank: Greater Yellowlegs is darker with more gray-brown in plumage, has more heavily barred white tail, dark back, and brighter yellow legs.

Flight Pattern

Swift direct flight with quick clipped wing beats.

Common Greenshank Breeding Male Body Illustration

● Range & Habitat: Common Greenshank: Found in Europe and Asia on mudflats, wetlands, bogs, shallow marshes, ponds. Rare visitor to western Aleutians, Pribilof, and St. Lawrence Islands of Alaska; also recorded in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland in fall and winter. Nests in taiga and forest areas; winters on a wide range of wetland habitats, both coastal and inland, but prefers estuaries to the open coast.

^BreedingMonogamous, Small colonies

^PopulationRare

^MigrationMigratory

^Weight6.1 Ounces

Sandpiper-like Body

Underparts

Belly, undertail coverts, chest, flanks, and foreneck.

Upperparts

Back, rump, hindneck, wings, and crown.

Rump

The area between the uppertail coverts and the back of the bird.

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