Greater Yellowlegs

Tringa melanoleuca

HOW TO IDENTIFY:

* Length: 11 inches
* Medium-sized long-legged shorebird
* Long, thin bill is slightly upturned
* Dark bill often has a slightly paler base
* Bill length is approximately 1.5 times the length of the head
* Bright yellow legs
* White tail is crossed with thin black bars
* Sexes similar
* Juvenile similar to basic-plumaged adult

Adult alternate:

* Head, neck, and chest are extensively streaked with black
* Pale flanks are barred with black
* Whitish belly with sparse dark bars and chevrons
* Back and upperwings are dark brown, dappled with black and white
* White notches on wing feathers appear as white spots on back
* Whitish supercilium and eyering, dusky lores

Adult basic:

* Head and neck pale, streaked sparsely with brown
* Breast, and to a lesser extent, flanks, streaked and spotted with gray-brown
* Dark brown back, with pale flecks and feather edges
* Buff notches on wing feathers appear as white spots on back

Similar species:

Solitary Sandpiper is smaller, shorter-billed and has a bolder eye ring, a dark rump, and green legs. The Lesser Yellowlegs is very similar but is smaller, with a straighter and proportionately shorter bill that is uniformly dark. In alternate plumage Lesser Yellowlegs has short, indistinct bars on flanks. The safest way to distinguish the two is the call: a harsh series of three or more notes in Greater Yellowlegs versus a softer, mellower single or double note of the Lesser Yellowlegs.