Piro-piro delle praterie

Identificazione

An adult is roughly 30 cm (12 in) long with a 66 cm (26 in) wingspan. The average weight is 170 g (6 oz). This odd bird has a small dove-like head on a long neck. It is heavily marbled black and brown on the back and wings. The neck is streaked with dark brown which continues down to the breast and on to the flanks. The belly and undertail coverts are white. The tail is quite long for a sandpiper. The upland also sports a white eye-ring and long yellow legs.

Tassonomia

Nome scientifico

Bartramia longicauda

Autorità

(Bechstein, 1812)

Ordine

Caradriformi

Famiglia

Scolopacidi

Genere

Bartramia

Areale e habitat

Even though they are sandpipers, they prefer open country with tall grasses to coastal habitat. They are also found at airports, blueberry farms and abandoned strip mines in the east. Their true core range and habitat is in the northern midwest United States. They breed from eastern Alaska south east of the Rocky Mountains through Montana to northern Oklahoma and then northeast to Pennsylvania, New England and extreme southern Quebec and Ontario. There are also local breeding populations in northeast Oregon and west central Idaho. They winter in northeastern Argentina, Uruguay and southern Brazil. It is an extremely rare vagrant to the South Pacific, with one record each from Australia and New Zealand.

Areale riproduttivo

NA : inland grassland of subarctic to n temperate Neotropics: n to se Alaska and nw Canada, e to se Canada and New England, in s to e Oregon, ne Oklahoma and in se to Pennsylvania (ec USA)

Areale non riproduttivo

inland grassland of subtropical to temperate s South America: mainly s Paraguay, s Brazil, Uruguay and wc to ec Argentina

Migrazione

Complete migrants

Conservazione

The numbers of these birds increased as forests were cleared in the early 19th century, but declined sharply in the late 19th century due to hunting. They are now regularly present in Midwestern North America but populations are scattered in the east.<p>Loss of prairie habitat is a concern. Also, livestock grazing has been found to reduce the number of nests in a field. Controlled burns may benefit this species as they feed on low-growing plants that are more easily spotted after a fire.

Tendenza della popolazione

rising