Dowitcher
Big Dowitcher ( Limnodromus scolopaceus )
The Dowitcher ( Limnodromus ) are a genus of the family of the Waders ( Scolopacidae ). The three species are medium-sized wading birds with long beak and long legs medium.
- 5.1 Single Documents
Features
The Dowitcher are about as large as the snipe and resemble this and the Bar-tailed Godwit in body shape, movement and the reddish summer plumage, but differ by the much shorter legs. The beak of the Dowitcher is remarkably long and thickened at the tip and indicated bent downward. In all the dresses they have a significant over- eye-streak. The medium length, relatively short-acting legs are greenish. In flight, a white, oblong oval spot is seen on the back. The wings have a white trailing edge.
Way of life
The Dowitcher breed in grass and moss -pits on the ground, never far from the water and feed mainly on snails, insects and other invertebrates that they find with their long beaks into the mud in shallow waters zones, rarely also of plants.
Species
- Small Dowitcher ( Limnodromus griseus ) breeding bird in three subspecies in northern Canada and Alaska. This species overwinters in an area of the southern United States to Brazil and can be extremely rarely observed as Irrgast in Western Europe.
- Big Dowitcher ( Limnodromus scolopaceus ), breeding bird in the tundra of North America and Eastern Siberia, the type pulls in the winter in the southern United States and Central America. It is rare, but regularly observed in Western Europe. So the Great Dowitcher 1958-1996 was observed a total of 216 times. For most observations are mostly young birds that reach especially in September and October Europe.
- Asiatic Dowitcher ( Limnodromus semipalmatus ), breeding bird in the steppes of Siberia, Mongolia and Northeast China, in winter attracts the kind to Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand, important wintering areas are the Banyuasin Delta on Sumatra and Java Ujung Pangkah.
Small and Big Dowitcher are difficult to distinguish from each other and a long time for a single type were held. About the third species of the genus, the rather rare Asiatic Dowitcher, is rather poorly understood.
All three species are migratory.