Short-billed Dowitcher

Limnodromus griseus

HOW TO IDENTIFY:

* Length: 9.5 inches
* Medium-sized shorebird
* Long, straight bill
* Dull, yellowish legs
* White rump extends in wedge onto back
* Tail barred black and white
* Sexes similar
* Several different races

Adult alternate:

* Reddish underparts
* Dark crown and eyeline with reddish supercilium
* Black bases to back feathers with reddish edges
* 'hendersoni' race has reddish belly and black spots on sides of breast and flanks
* 'griseus' race has white belly and densely spotted foreneck and barred flanks
* 'caurinus' race has small white belly and densely spotted foreneck

Adult basic:

* Pale gray head with white supercilium
* Pale gray breast with faint spotting
* Gray upperparts
* White belly and undertail coverts

Juvenile:

* Back feathers dark with broad orange edges
* Tertials dark with orange stripes
* Head and breast with orange wash and scattered spots

Similar species:

The most distinctive feature of dowitchers is their long bill. Godwits also have extremely long bills but their bills are bicolored and they are larger. In flight, dowitchers can be picked out of mixed shorebird flocks by the white 'v' extending up the back. The Long-billed Dowitcher is very similar to the Short-billed Dowitcher. In alternate plumage, the Long-billed Dowitcher has barred flanks and a reddish belly; some races of the Short-billed Dowitcher have barred flanks and some have reddish bellies but not on the same bird. Juvenile Short-billed Dowithchers have a more orange plumage than juvenile Long-billed Dowithcers. The best field mark for separating the juvenile plumages is the appearance of the tertials. In the Short-billed they have internal orange stripes while in the Long-billed they have a thin brown fringe with no internal markings. Winter plumage dowitchers are very similar.