Bécassin à bec court

Identification

The body of adults is dark brown on top and reddish underneath. The tail has a black and white barred pattern. The legs are a yellowish color.<p>The three subspecies have slight variations in appearance:<p>None of these combines the reddish belly and barred flanks of the breeding plumage long-billed dowitcher. The winter plumage is largely grey. This bird can range from 23 to 32 cm (9.1 to 12.6 in) in length, 46 to 56 cm (18 to 22 in) in wingspan and 73–155 g (2.6–5.5 oz) in body mass.<p>The call of this bird is more mellow than that of the long-billed dowitcher, and is useful in identification, particularly of the difficult adult plumages.

Taxonomie

The short-billed dowitcher was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it in the genus Scolopax and coined the binomial name Scolopax grisea. Gmelin based his description on the "brown snipe" from the coast of New York that had been described in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham and by the Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant. The short-billed dowitcher is now placed in the genus Limnodromus that was introduced in 1833 by Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek limnē meaning "marsh" with -dromos meaning "-racer" or "-runner". The specific griseus is Medieval Latin meaning "grey". The English name "dowitcher" is from Iroquois and was first recorded in 1841.<p>Three subspecies are recognised:

Nom scientifique

Limnodromus griseus

Autorité

(Gmelin, JF, 1789)

Ordre

Charadriiformes

Famille

Scolopacidés

Genre

Limnodromus

Répartition et habitat

The breeding habitat of the short-billed dowitcher includes bogs, tidal marshes, mudflats or forest clearings south of the tree line in northern North America. L. g. griseus breeds in northern Quebec; L. g. hendersoni breeds in north central Canada; L. g. caurinus breeds in southern Alaska and southern Yukon.<p>The birds migrate to the southern United States and as far south as Brazil. This bird is more likely to be seen near ocean coasts during migration than the long-billed dowitcher. This species occurs in western Europe only as an extremely rare vagrant.

Aire de reproduction

NA : n temperate bogs in tundra and muskeg of Nearctic: Gulf of Alaska and inland sc Alaska, sw Yukon and montane nw British Columbia (nw Canada); nc Alberta to w Manitoba (c Canada); sw Hudson and James bays to w Labrador (ec Canada)

Aire hors reproduction

s USA and LA : coastal mudflats and mangroves of temperate to tropical Western Hemisphere: n California to n Peru and Galapagos (e Pacific) and North Carolina to ne Brazil (w Atlantic)

Migration

Complete migrants

Comportement

These birds nest on the ground, usually near water. Their nests are shallow depressions in clumps of grass or moss, which are lined with fine grasses, twigs and leaves. They lay four, sometimes three, olive-buff to brown eggs. Incubation lasts for 21 days and is done by both sexes.<p>The downy juvenile birds leave the nest soon after hatching. Parental roles are not well known, but it is believed the female departs and leaves the male to tend the chicks, which find all their own food.<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.

Conservation

Tendance de la population

declining