A wading bird of the sandpiper family, with a long straight bill, breeding in arctic and subarctic North America and eastern Asia.
Genus Limnodromus, family Scolopacidae: three species, in particular the short-billed dowitcher (L. griseus) and the long-billed dowitcher (L. scolopaceus)
‘Currently, visitors to the flats are likely to see sandpipers, avocets, oystercatchers, godwits, dowitchers, plovers and other shorebirds on their way south.’
‘Common species of shorebirds, such as yellowlegs, dowitchers, black-bellied plovers and ‘peep,’ are often joined by pectoral, stilt and solitary sandpipers.’
‘Often described as looking like a yellowlegs and feeding like a dowitcher, the Stilt Sandpiper is a medium-sized, long-legged wader.’
‘Birders can watch migratory species such as endangered clapper rails, dowitchers, and American avocets from the platform at Elsie Roemer Bird Sanctuary.’
‘Overall foraging niches (linear combination of diet diversity, prey size, foraging-method diversity, and water depth) of avocets and dowitchers were segregated from each other and from Least and Western sandpipers.’
‘For avocets and dowitchers, the handling costs of large prey is likely relatively low; however, large prey were relatively scarce compared to small prey.’
‘You will need a field guide to help you identify these two species, but one way to recognize the dowitchers is by their method of feeding, described as a ‘sewing needle action.’’
‘A flock of 10,000 to 20,000 dowitchers in Nevada's Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge moves in unison.’
‘In flight, they show a pale trailing edge on their wings and a distinctive white blaze up their backs, which easily identifies them as dowitchers.’
‘A short-billed dowitcher shot along the inlet - I heard its subdued triple toot - the only dowitcher I saw all season.’
‘The female is about the size of a dowitcher, and the male is similar in size to a Greater Yellowlegs.’
‘Four stately Whimbrels rested quietly amid the dowitchers, which moved quickly and kept probing the mud with their rod-like bills.’
‘Between the Nauset Marshes, Corn Hill, Pilgrim Beach, and the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary we saw 56 species, 13 of them new for Eric, including semipalmated plovers, long-billed dowitchers, lesser yellowlegs, and a horned lark.’
Origin
Mid 19th century from Iroquoian.
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