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March 19, 2024

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Friday, January 28, 2022

Bird of the Week – Short-billed Dowitcher

WC overlooked the Short-billed Dowitcher when posting its close cousin, the Long-billed Dowitcher, back in August 2015.

Short-billed Dowitcher, Hartney Bay, Cordova, shown slumming with Sanderlings

Short-billed Dowitcher, Hartney Bay, Cordova, shown slumming with Sanderlings

It can be pretty tough to tell a Long-billed from a Short-billed. Location helps: if you are on the coast, it’s more likely a Short-billed; if you are further from the ocean, it’s more likely a Long-billed.

Short-billed Dowitcher, Yakutat Forelands

Short-billed Dowitcher, Yakutat Forelands

Bill length and coloration vary a lot. The calls are different, but both Dowitchers spend most of their time in a frenzied feeding, their bills probed full length in the mud, like a busy sewing machine.

Dowtichers are not well-studied. Even their name is a puzzle. They were hunted in the 18th and 19th centtury, and on the east coast called German Snipe. Perhaps “dowitch” is derived from “Deutscher” or “Duitsch”, which referred to the “German” snipe. Ornithologists were even sure there were two species until the early 1950s.

For more bird photos, please visit Frozen Feather Images.

 

Comments

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Comments
3 Responses to “Bird of the Week – Short-billed Dowitcher”
  1. mike from iowa says:

    WC- not only are you a very good photographer, you are quite funny as well. Doubly impressed.

  2. mike from iowa says:

    If yours is the only bill on the beach, size is irrelevant. Interesting birds. Got any that kill and eat grizzlies on a regular basis?