The lesser yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes) is a medium-sized shorebird. It breeds in the boreal forest region of North America.
Taxonomy
The lesser yellowlegs was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it in the genus Scolopax and coined the binomial name Scolopax flavipes. Gmelin based his description on the "yellow shanks" seen in the province of New York in autumn that had been described in 1785 by both the English ornithologist John Latham and the Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant. The lesser yellowlegs is now placed in the genus Tringa that was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. The name Tringa is the Neo-Latin word given to the green sandpiper by the Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi in 1603 based on Ancient Greek trungas, a thrush-sized, white-rumped, tail-bobbing wading bird mentioned by Aristotle. The specific epithet flavipes combines the Latin flavus meaning "yellow" with pes meaning "foot". The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. The legs are yellow. Compared to the greater yellowlegs, the bill is shorter (visually about the same length as the head), slim, straight, and uniformly dark. The breast is streaked and the flanks are finely marked with short bars.
thumb|Lesser yellowlegs foraging in Queens, New York
thumb|Chicks
thumb|Lesser yellowlegs (left) are smaller, with a proportionally shorter bill than [[greater yellowlegs (right). Semipalmated sandpipers in the foreground.]]
This species is similar in appearance to the larger greater yellowlegs, although it is more closely related to the much larger willet; the fine, clear, and dense pattern of the neck shown in breeding plumage indicates these species' actual relationships.
The call of this bird is softer than that of the greater yellowlegs.
Distribution and habitat
The lesser yellowlegs breeds across interior Alaska and northern Canada, extending eastward to central Quebec. Its breeding range lies primarily between 51° and 69° N latitude in appropriate wetland habitats. with the occasional individual overwintering. Their breeding habitat is clearings near ponds in the boreal forest region from Alaska to Quebec.
Behavior and ecology
Breeding
thumb|Hatching Lesser Yellowlegs nest near Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. The egg on the far left of the frame is ‘pipped’, meaning that the chick's bill has broken through the egg membrane and shell and will emerge within 24 hours.
The nest is a depression on dry mossy ground and is usually well hidden, typically within 200 meters of a water source and next to fallen branches, logs, or underneath low shrubs. The clutch is normally three to five eggs. These are buff or gray-brown and are covered in spots of various shades of brown. On average, the egg length is about 1.5 to 1.9 in(3.9-4.7 cm), and the egg width is about 1.1 to 1.2 in(2.7-3.1 cm). They are incubated for 22-23 days by both sexes. Both parents brood and care for the precocial young, which leave the nest a few hours after hatching. They can feed themselves upon departure from the nest. They fly at 23 to 31 days.
Food and feeding
Lesser yellowlegs forage in shallow water or on land. They eat primarily invertebrates gleaned (such as flies, beetles, water boatmen, and mayflies),