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Short-billed Dowitcher | Limnodromus griseus
Kleine grijze snip | Costurero pico corto
Short-billed Dowitcher is one of the commonest waders along the coasts of the guide area. On mudflats, in salt pans and along mangroves the birds often feed in dense flocks, jabbing into the mud at high speed with their long, straight bills. Unlike Long-billed Dowitcher it mainly favours salt water.
Voice
A soft, mellow tu-tu-tu, usually three syllables, especially in flight. Fairly quiet while feeding.
Recording: Stanislas Wroza — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
25–29 cm. Compact, short-legged wader with a long, straight bill and greenish-yellow legs. In non-breeding plumage pale grey above, with a pale grey, often finely speckled breast grading into the white belly, and a white supercilium. In breeding plumage orange-brown with a dark-spotted breast; depending on the subspecies the belly is white or also orange. Juveniles are warm brown, with tertials showing pale internal markings. In flight a white wedge from the rump to halfway up the back and a finely barred tail. Females have longer bills on average.
Confusion species
Long-billed Dowitcher Limnodromus scolopaceus has a darker, plain grey breast in non-breeding plumage, calls a sharp keek and favours fresh water; juveniles have plain grey tertials. Stilt Sandpiper Calidris himantopus has longer, yellowish legs and a shorter bill drooping slightly at the tip. Wilson's Snipe Gallinago delicata has a striped head and back, lives hidden in marsh vegetation and lacks the white wedge.
Habitat
Mudflats and mudbanks, estuaries, saline lagoons and salt pans, mangrove edges and salt marsh, also sewage ponds, fish ponds and shrimp farms. Feeds in shallow water and on wet mud with rapid, vertical jabs of the bill for worms, small shellfish and insect larvae, often among other waders.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Along the coasts of the whole guide area, on the Pacific side from Baja California to Panama and on the Gulf and Caribbean coasts from Mexico to Panama; most numerous along coasts with extensive mudflats, such as the Bay of Panama. Inland mainly on migration. Outside the guide area the species breeds in Alaska and Canada and winters along coasts from the southern United States to Peru and Brazil.
- Winter visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Mudflats on a rising tide and salt pans are the best places; flocks are often tame and can be watched at close range. A dowitcher that does not call tu-tu-tu or that feeds on fresh water deserves a second look.
Conservation status
Vulnerable. The population has declined clearly in recent decades. Threats are the loss of mudflats and coastal wetlands along the flyway and on the wintering grounds, including through shrimp farming and coastal development, and disturbance.
Scientific name
Limnodromus griseus | (Gmelin, 1789)
Gmelin described the species in 1789 as Scolopax grisea; 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'. griseus is Medieval Latin for 'grey', after the grey winter plumage. The specimen the first description was based on came from Long Island, New York.