Short-billed dowitcher

Appearance

The body of adults is dark brown on top and reddish underneath. The tail has a black and white barred pattern. The legs are a yellowish color.

There are three subspecies with slight variations in appearance:

⤷  ''L. g. griseus'' has a white belly and barred flanks.
⤷  ''L. g. hendersoni'' has a reddish belly and spotted flanks.
⤷  ''L. g. caurinus'' has a white belly with heavily barred flanks and densely spotted breast.

None of these combines the reddish belly and barred flanks of the breeding plumage long-billed dowitcher. The winter plumage is largely grey. This bird can range from 23 to 32 cm in length, 46 to 56 cm in wingspan and 73–155 g in body mass.

The call of this bird is more mellow than that of the long-billed dowitcher, and is useful in identification, particularly of the difficult adult plumages.

Naming

The genus name ''Limnodromus'' is Ancient Greek from ''limne'', "marsh" and ''dromos'', "racer". The specific ''griseus'' is Medieval Latin for "grey". The English name is from Iroquois and was first recorded in 1841.

Distribution

It is an inhabitant of North America, Central America, and northern South America. It is strongly migratory; it completely vacates in breeding areas during the snow-bound months.

Habitat

Their breeding habitat includes bogs, tidal marshes, mudflats or forest clearings south of the tree line in northern North America.

Reproduction

These birds nest on the ground, usually near water. Their nests are shallow depressions in clumps of grass or moss, which are lined with fine grasses, twigs and leaves. They lay four, sometimes three, olive-buff to brown eggs. Incubation lasts for 21 days and is done by both sexes.

The downy juvenile birds leave the nest soon after hatching. Parental roles are not well known, but it is believed the female departs and leaves the male to tend the chicks, which find all their own food.

Food

These birds forage by probing in shallow water or on wet mud. They mainly eat insects, mollusks, crustaceans and marine worms, but also eat some plant material.

Migration

They migrate to the southern United States and as far south as Brazil. This bird is more likely to be seen near ocean coasts during migration than the long-billed dowitcher. This species occurs in western Europe only as an extremely rare vagrant.