Bird name:

Common Greenshank

Tringa nebularia

Order

CHARADRIIFORMES

Family

Sandpipers (Scolopacidae)

Code 4

COMG

Code 6

TRINEB

ITIS

176624

Breeding Location:

Grasslands, Marshes, Wetlands

Breeding Type:

Monogamous, Small colonies

Breeding Population:

Rare

Egg Color:

Light gray to buff with red brown spots

Number of Eggs:

Incubation Days:

Egg Incubator:

Both sexes

Nest Material:

Lined with moss.

Migration:

Migratory

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General

Common Greenshank: Large sandpiper with scaled gray-brown upperparts, white rump, and white underparts streaked and spotted with brown. Long legs are yellow-green. Bill is slightly upturned. Sexes are similar.

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.

Breeding and 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.

Foraging and Feeding

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

Vocalization

Common Greenshank: Song is a bold, melodic whistle "tew-tew-tew" similar to that of Greater Yellowlegs; also makes a musical "too-hoo, too-hoo" on breeding grounds.

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.

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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.

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