Long-billed Dowitcher

Overview

Long-billed Dowitcher: Large, stocky sandpiper with dark, mottled upperparts, dark cap and eyestripe, short white eyebrow, and red-brown underparts with lightly barred flanks. Bill is long, dark, and dagger like. Legs and feet are yellow-green. Swift direct flight, rapid wing beats.

Range and Habitat

Long-billed Dowitcher: Breeds in western Alaska and northwestern Canada. Spends winters along the coast from Washington and Virginia south to Guatemala. During breeding season lives on tundra; found on mudflats, marshes, and edges of freshwater ponds and marshes during winter.

INTERESTING FACTS

The Long-billed Dowitcher is more likely to be seen near fresh water than the Short-billed Dowitcher.
Their bills are full of nerve endings, which are useful for sensing prey. They walk along slowly, lifting their heads up and down like a sewing machine.
A group of sandpipers has many collective nouns, including a "bind", "contradiction", "fling", "hill", and "time-step" of sandpipers.

The Long-billed Dowitcher has a large range, estimated globally at 100,000 to 1,000,000 square kilometers. Native to Asia and the Americas and introduced to Europe, this bird prefers wetland and marine ecosystems. The global population of this bird is estimated at 500,000 individuals and does not show signs of decline that would necessitate inclusion on the IUCN Red List. For this reason, the current evaluation status of the Long-billed Dowitcher is Least Concern.