Animals -> Birds -> Shorebirds -> Short-billed Dowitcher

Short-billed Dowitcher

Red Earth Cree of Saskatchewan are reported to have eaten a dowitcher [1], presumably the Short-billed Dowitcher.

Reference

1.         Meyer D: Appendix I: Plants, Animals and Climate; Appendix IV: Subsistence-Settlement Patterns. In: The Red Earth Crees, 1860-1960. Volume 1st edition, edn.: National Musem of Man Mercury Series; 1985: 175-185-200-223.

The Short-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus griseus) is a medium-sized shorebird that breeds in coastal Alaska and British Columbia, in western Alberta and northern Manitoba, around the James Bay, and along the coast of Labrador. They are part of a large family of shorebirds including sandpipers, snipes, whimbrels, phalaropes, yellowlegs, woodcocks, and godwits. Short-billed Dowitchers weigh between 90 and 120 g and are mottled brown, with a long neck, moderately long, greenish legs, and, despite their name, a very long bill. They are referred to as the Short-billed Dowitcher to differentiate them from the slightly longer-billed, larger and more brightly coloured Long-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus scolopaceus), but the two species are similar enough in appearance that they are often confused or grouped as one within their overlapping migration routes and winter range. However, Short-billed Dowitchers typically breed in boreal muskegs, far away from the coastal Beaufort Sea and Bering Strait breeding range of Long-billed Dowitchers.

Reference

Jehl JJR, Klima J, Harris RE: Short-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus griseus). In: The Birds of North America Online. Edited by Poole A. Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; 2001.

 

Distribution maps provided below, unless otherwise stated, were obtained from Birds of North America Online http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/, maintained by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and all pictures provided below were obtained from Encyclopedia of Life http://www.eol.org.
Short-billed Dowitcher
© Blake Matheson
Supplier: Flickr: EOL Images
Photographer: Blake Matheson

 

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