Short-billed Dowitcher
Small Dowitcher ( Limnodromus griseus )
The Little Dowitcher ( Limnodromus griseus ), also called pink-footed Dowitcher, is a North American species of the family of the Dowitcher. There are three subspecies. In Europe, the Small Dowitcher is an extremely rare exception guest and is not as common as the Great Dowitcher observed here.
Appearance
The little mud runner reaches a body length of 25-29 inches and weighs 65-154 grams. The beak length is 1.5 to 1.75 times the length of the head.
In breeding plumage, the body top is black brown, maroon and beige spotted. The body bottom is salmon. The cervical and thoracic sides are dotted dark, the edges are indistinct brown banded and the belly is white. The plumage of the back and wing-coverts are gray-brown. The dark vertex contrasts strikingly with the long white eye-streak over. The lower body is white and the neck and the front chest are pale washed-out gray-brown.
Distribution area
The Little Dowitcher breeds in three separate areas in the subarctic North America. The breeding areas are found in the north of Quebec City, in central and north-western Canada and southern Alaska. The portfolio totals approximately 320,000 individuals. Small Dowitcher are migratory birds, their winter quarters are located in the southern United States, Central America and South America from Peru to Brazil. The three separate populations follow their autumn and spring migration each different routes. The breeding birds of Central and Northwest Canada's pull on the Great Plains and the Mississippi Valley, breeding birds in northern Quebec follow the Atlantic coast. The breeding birds of Alaska drag along the Pacific coast and winter in an area that extends from California to Peru.
Habitat
Small Dowitcher breed mainly in the inner coniferous forest and forest bog zone and in marshy areas with low vegetation. They also occur in feuchtsumpfiger coastal tundra. During the turn you will find them on prairie lakes and ponds. To a greater extent than the Grand Dowitcher is the case they keep on during the winter half of the year on the coast. Here the little Dowitcher is mostly to be found on mudflats, estuaries and salt marshes.
Food
The Little Dowitcher lives in the breeding area of predominantly epigeal arthropods. A large portion of the diet have mainly larvae and pupae of Diptera. He also eats snails, beetles and insect larvae, and occasionally seeds. In the wintering area, the diet consists mainly of marine annelids and molluscs.
When foraging the Small Dowitcher stands quickly and violently with his beak into the mud and then pulls it out again.
Reproduction
The nest is a flat, padded with dry grasses trough, which is applied in the protection of dense vegetation. The nest consists of four eggs. These are pale green to cream colored and have dark brown and light gray spots on. Incubation period is 21 days and both parents birds breed. The young birds are mainly performed by the male.
Subspecies
There are three subspecies:
- L. g hendersoni that breeds in the middle of Canada
- L. g caurinus that breeds in Alaska. This species has a paler belly and hull is stronger spotted at the chest and cross drawn more on the flanks
- L. griseus g is the nominate race, which occurs in the region of Quebec, the James Bay and Labrador.