General
Long-billed Dowitcher: Large, stocky sandpiper with dark, mottled upperparts, darker cap and eye stripe, short white eyebrow and red-brown underparts with lightly barred flanks. Bill is very long, dark and very slightly decurved. Legs and feet are yellow-green. Sexes are similar. Winter adult is gray overall with lightly barred white belly and shows fine dark spots on white vent. Juvenile resembles winter adult but darker, with scaled back and wings. Feeds on insects and insect larvae, mollusks, crustaceans, and marine worms. Swift direct flight, rapid wing beats.
Range and Habitat
Long-billed Dowitcher: Breeds along the coast of western Alaska and northwestern Canada. Spends winters along the coast from Washington and Virginia south to Guatemala and throughout Mexico. During breeding season lives on tundra; found on mudflats, marshes, and edges of freshwater ponds and marshes during winter.
Breeding and Nesting
Long-billed Dowitcher: Their breeding grounds are in northern Alaska and Canada, although some have expanded as far as Siberia. Four brown to olive eggs with brown and gray blotches are laid in a shallow, elevated ground scrape lined with grass and moss, usually near water. Although both sexes incubate the eggs for 20 days, only the male takes care of the young once they hatch.
Foraging and Feeding
Long-billed Dowitcher: These sandpipers feed mainly on insect larvae, earthworms, crustaceans, moss, plant parts, seeds and snails. They probe in shallow water and on mudflats with a fast, repetitive up-down motion with the bill. They frequently plunge their head below the water. They have been observed drinking in brackish water by dipping and raising their bill and tilting their head back.
Vocalization
Long-billed Dowitcher: Alarm call is a single, loud "keek."
Similar Species
Long-billed Dowitcher: Short-billed Dowitcher is brown, has pale eyebrow, slightly shorter bill, spotted red-brown underparts, faint bars on flanks, and lacks speckling on nape and throat. Best separated by vocalizations.