Limnodromus griseus: Short-billed Dowitcher–The Race Rocks Taxonomy

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Short -Billed Dowitchers, photo by Riley Strother, April 20 2017

This juvenile short-billed Dowitcher was seen up near the tower in August 18 2009. It was very tame and quite unconcerned with the local humans. Image by Ian Perry.

The same juvenile, (Aug 18/ 09) , shown above. Images by G.Fletcher
Dowitcher probing for invertebrates Note the Halosaccion band of the intertidal zone where it is feeding rear view- note buff colored underparts side view- note dark eye.
Eukarya
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Subphylum Vertebrata
Class Aves
Order Charadriiformes
Family Scolopacidae
Genus Limnodromus
Species griseus
Common Name: Short Billed Dowitcher

The Short-billed Dowitcher breeds in Northern Canada. It winters in South America.
It occurs rarely and solitary at Race Rocks where it stops on migration. Short-billed Dowitchers normally are birds of mudflats along the Pacific Coast. One individual bird was filmed on May 1 2003 (above)as it probed for food among the barnacles and algae of the Halosaccion zone at Race Rocks.

In the photo to the right from September 2005, another dowitcher roamed through the area near the base of the rock on the East side. So presumably we have pictures of the stopover going North and South!

Compare with the size of a gull in this Link to a post showing Dowitchers at Race Rocks-April 20 , 2017

This video shows the Short-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus griseus) in the intertidal zone to the East of the docks at Race Rocks. Note the “sewing machine ” action as it probes for food. The biology class watched this bird on May1/03 before starting on an intertidal transect in the same area. The coloration was noticeably buff-colored when compared to other shore birds. This individual was very fearless, even returning to feed briefly nearby after we had laid down our transect. This is normally a bird of the Pacific Coast mudflats.

 

Other Members of the Class Aves at Race Rocks.
taxonomyiconReturn to the Race Rocks Taxonomy
and Image File
pearsonlogo2_f2The Race Rocks taxonomy is a collaborative venture originally started with the Biology and Environmental Systems students of Lester Pearson College UWC. It now also has contributions added by Faculty, Staff, Volunteers and Observers on the remote control webcams. May 2003– Garry Fletcher/strong>