Asian Dowitcher
Limnodromus semipalmatus
Very uncommon large, long-billed shorebird, nearly the size of a godwit, found in coastal mudflats and open marshes. Breeding adult extensively brick-red below, dark and strongly marked with brick-red tones above. Nonbreeding adult grayish brown with a duller, browner bill. Juvenile dark above, with broad gold feather edges, pale below, washed with warm buff or gold tones and with neat dark stipples and chevron-shaped marks. Blackish legs distinguish Asian from Long-billed Dowitcher, which has yellowish-green legs. Blackish or brownish bill of adult Asian differs from bicolored bill of godwits; note that bill of juvenile Asian has pale base.
Identification
Adults have dark legs and a long straight dark bill, somewhat shorter than that of the long-billed dowitcher. The body is brown on top and reddish underneath in breeding plumage. The tail has a black and white barred pattern. The winter plumage is largely grey.<p>Their breeding habitat is grassy wetlands in inland Siberia and Manchuria. They migrate to southeast Asia as far south as northern Australia, although both the breeding and wintering areas are poorly known. This bird is always found on coasts during migration and wintering.<p>These birds forage by probing in shallow water or on wet mud. They mainly eat insects, mollusks, crustaceans and marine worms, but also eat some plant material.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Limnodromus semipalmatus
- Authority
- (Blyth, 1848)
- Order
- Charadriiformes
- Family
- Scolopacidae
- Genus
- Limnodromus
Range and habitat
- Breeding range
- PAL : inland wetlands of temperate c, e Palearctic: sw Siberia and e Kazakhstan, (probably) n Mongolia to Amurland (se Siberia) and ne China
- Non-breeding range
- OR, AU : coastal s Thailand, Malay Pen., Indonesian Arch., n Australia and Philippines (rare)
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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