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Long-billed Dowitcher | Limnodromus scolopaceus
Grote grijze snip | Agujeta escolopácea
Long-billed Dowitcher is a stocky wader with a long, straight bill which in winter mainly seeks out fresh and brackish water. In Mexico it is a common winter visitor to lakes, marshes and rice fields both in the lowlands and on the plateau, often in large flocks. Further south in Central America it quickly becomes scarcer.
Voice
A sharp, high keek, singly or in a rapid series keek-keek-keek, also while feeding; the surest difference from Short-billed Dowitcher.
Recording: AUDEVARD Aurélien — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
26–30 cm. Compact, short-legged wader with a very long, straight bill and greenish-yellow legs. In non-breeding plumage plain dark grey on the head, neck and breast, with a fairly sharp transition to the white belly, and a white supercilium. In breeding plumage red-orange down to the belly, with fine black barring on the sides of the breast. Juveniles are grey with plain grey tertials with narrow pale fringes. In flight a white wedge from the rump to halfway up the back and a densely dark-barred tail. Females have longer bills on average.
Confusion species
Short-billed Dowitcher Limnodromus griseus is paler grey on the breast in non-breeding plumage, often finely speckled, calls a soft tu-tu-tu and favours salt water and mudflats; juveniles have tertials with pale internal markings. Bill length overlaps between the two species and is not a reliable feature. Wilson's Snipe Gallinago delicata has a striped head and back, lives hidden in marsh vegetation and lacks the white wedge.
Habitat
Freshwater marshes, shallow lakes and ponds, rice fields, flooded pasture, sewage ponds and brackish lagoons; locally also saline inland lakes on the plateau. Feeds in flocks in shallow water with rapid, vertical jabs of the bill for insect larvae, worms and small snails.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
In winter widespread in Mexico, both along the coasts and on the lakes and marshes of the plateau, and in decreasing numbers in Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras. Scarce to rare in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. A few birds stay through the summer. Outside the guide area the species breeds in north-eastern Siberia, Alaska and north-western Canada and also winters in the southern United States.
- Winter visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Shallow freshwater lakes and rice fields on the Mexican plateau are the best places. A flock of dowitchers on fresh water calling a sharp keek is almost certainly Long-billed.
Conservation status
Near Threatened. The population is declining, mainly through the loss of freshwater marshes and shallow lakes along the flyway and on the wintering grounds.
Scientific name
Limnodromus scolopaceus | (Say, 1822)
Say described the species in 1822 as Limosa scolopacea; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Limnodromus was introduced in 1833 by Wied-Neuwied. Limnodromus is Ancient Greek, from limnē 'marsh' and -dromos '-runner'. scolopaceus means 'snipe-like', from Latin scolopax 'snipe', after the long straight bill. The specimen the first description was based on came from near Council Bluffs, Iowa.