The long-billed dowitcher (Limnodromus scolopaceus) is a medium-sized shorebird with a relatively long bill belonging to the sandpiper family, Scolopacidae. In breeding plumage, adults are characterized by a rufous head and underparts with a darker mottled back and a large white upper rump only seen in flight. They feed in various freshwater habitats with their bill underwater in a "sewing machine" motion and have a mating display where males chase females in flight. The English name is from Iroquois and was first recorded in 1841.

The long-billed dowitcher is similar in appearance to the short-billed dowitcher and was only recognized as a separate species in 1950. The taxonomy of the long-billed and short-billed dowitcher has presented difficulties in part due to the variability of the short-billed dowitcher.

For around 100 years the long-billed dowitcher and short-billed dowitcher were recognized as two distinct species. By 1927 the long-billed dowitcher was made a sub-species of the short-billed dowitcher, as the western form, due to bird observations which were similar to both species linking the two geographically. It was not until Frank Pitelka published his monograph, in 1950, that the two dowitcher species were once again accepted as being two distinct species. Further research has shown that the two species are estimated to have diverged genetically more than four million years ago.

Description

The long-billed dowitcher is a medium-sized, stocky sandpiper with a bill about twice the length of its head. In all plumages, the long-billed dowitcher has a whitish supercilium and dark loral stripe that continuous past the eye. The tail is barred black and white with the black being almost twice the width of the white and a large distinctive white rump which extends up to the middle of its back.

Long-billed dowitcher are in breeding plumage from approximately May to late August or early September. In breeding plumage, adults are characterized by a dark crown on top of their head and a rufous neck, chest, and belly underneath with black bars on their breast and white barring on flanks when plumage is fresh. The older the feathers get the less the black bars may appear leaving the breast dark redish. The crown and the back are a mix of brown, black and buff markings. Wings and upper-back are mottled with black, buff, and white markings looking overall dark brown.

When in the winter plumage the long-billed dowitcher is very difficult to distinguish in the field from the short-billed dowitcher. In non-breeding plumage, adults are drab grey, with darker upperparts and breast contrasting with paler white belly. The gray of the breast also gradually lightens as it reaches the chin.

  • Length:
  • Weight:
  • Wingspan:

Habitat and distribution

Breeding

In North America, the long-billed dowitcher breeds mainly throughout western and northern Alaska along the coast from Hooper Bay to w. Mackenzie and south to the foothills of Brooks Range. In this range, while nesting it greatly prefers wet, grass or sedge freshwater meadows but it is also sometimes confined to marshes and will move to lakes, ponds, or estuaries to forage after nesting. In eastern Siberia it breeds from the lower Yana River to Chukotka Peninsula and Anadyr Lowlands with an apparent westward expansion in Russia, also commonly nesting along Bering Sea and inland along rivers draining into the East Arctic Sea of Siberia.

The fall migrations generally occurs from July to October with the adult long-billed dowitcher beginning to migrate south in July while juveniles begin migrating through September to October. From their breeding grounds the long-billed dowitcher will either migrate south along the Pacific Coast, across the Canadian Prairies and down the Great Basin or through Ontario towards Florida.

Behaviour

Diet and foraging

thumb|Foraging long-billed dowitcher

Long-billed dowitchers forage by jabbing or probing with a characteristic "sewing machine" motion in shallow water or on wet mud, often with their heads underwater and using tactile receptors on the tip of their bill to locate prey by touch. The long-billed dowitcher, during breeding, consumes large quantities of chironomidae larva and larva of other insects with occasional plant matter and seeds. During migration and in their wintering region, the long-billed dowitcher consumes a far greater range of food types. Dowitchers eat everything from polychaetes to insect larva to crustaceans to mollusks. Also, having night vision, they are known to forage at night during migration.

Vocalization

The long-billed dowitcher's main call, mostly heard in flight but also while on ground, is a high, sharp keek sometimes repeated as an accelerating quick double or triple note series. Its second, less common call is a tu given 1-8 times. Its song is described as pee-witch-er, and its alarm call is an explosive KEEK. The long-billed dowitcher is a more vocal shorebird often making a keek or tu call, heard when in feeding flocks unlike the short-billed dowitcher which are generally silent on the ground. Long-billed dowitchers nest in wet areas of tall grasses in the troughs of raised mounds and ridges. The nest is a simple depression in the ground usually lined with grass and leaves.

The long-billed dowitcher lays an average four eggs per brood. The eggs are oval to pear shaped and range from being a buff olive to a greenish or blueish glaucous. The eggs are also heavily splotched with varying shades of brown near the base of the large end with the underlying marks being dark gray. Incubation of the eggs is approximately twenty days in which both sexes participate.

References

  • Long-billed dowitcher - Limnodromus scolopaceus - USGS Patuxent Bird Identification Infocenter
  • Long-billed dowitcher (Limnodromus scolopaceus) - Cornell Lab of Ornithology
  • Long-billed dowitcher species account - Cornell Lab of Ornithology