Dowitcher

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Dowitcher
Longbilleddowitcher06.jpg
Long-billed dowitcher (Limnodromus scolopaceus)
Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Scolopacidae
Subfamily:
Genus: Limnodromus
Wied-Neuwied, 1833
Type species
Limnodromus griseus
(Gmelin, 1789)
Species

See text.

The three dowitchers are medium-sized long-billed wading birds in the genus Limnodromus. The genus name is Ancient Greek from limne (marsh) and dromos (racer).[1] The English name is from Iroquois, recorded in English by the 1830s.[2]

They resemble godwits in body and bill shape, and the reddish underparts in summer, but are much shorter legged, more like snipe to which they are also somewhat more closely related.[3] All three are strongly migratory.

The two North American species are difficult to separate in most plumages, and were considered a single species for many years. The Asian bird is rare and not well known.

The dowitcher species are:

References[]

  1. ^ Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 227. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  2. ^ "Dowitcher". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.) The OED's earliest example is from 1841, but full-text searching gives results that suggest it was already in common use by the mid-1830s.
  3. ^ Thomas, Gavin H.; Wills, Matthew A. & Székely, Tamás (2004): "A supertree approach to shorebird phylogeny[permanent dead link]".BMC Evol. Biol. 4: 28. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-4-28 PMID 15329156 Supplementary Material

External links[]

  • Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Dowitcher" . New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
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