Short-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus griseu)

"Look for them in wetlands across North America, from coastal mudflats to sewage ponds and flooded fields. Like the very similar Long-billed Dowitcher, it probes for food by rhythmically inserting the bill straight up and down like a sewing machine needle at work. On tundra breeding grounds, males perform flight displays on quivering wings, delivering a grating, bubbly song. Sometimes bird names just seem wrong: it only takes one look at a Short-billed Dowitcher to notice it’s not a short-billed shorebird! The name is meant to distinguish it from the Long-billed Dowitcher, but it’s only a subtle difference. Female dowitchers have longer bills than males, so if you see one with an absurdly long-looking bill, it’s probably a female Long-billed. But in general, it’s much more useful to listen to dowitchers than to look at their bills to tell them apart. Early American ornithologist Elliott Coues believed that the word dowitcher derived from a hunters’ name for the bird, 'German snipe'—as opposed to 'English snipe,' which referred to the bird we now know as Wilson’s Snipe. In Pennsylvania Dutch, an American dialect of German, 'Duitscher' is the word for 'German.' Hunters and naturalists in the colonial era also knew dowitchers as red-breasted snipe and brownback.Unlike the Long-billed Dowitcher, Short-billed Dowitchers migrate in stages, first moving to intermediate areas to complete their molt, then moving on to their ultimate wintering areas. This strategy is called 'molt migration.'" Information from the All About Birds website, www.allaboutbirds.org, © Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

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