Short-billed Dowitcher (Breeding Plumage)

The Short-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus griseus), like its congener the Long-billed Dowitcher, is a medium-sized, stocky, long-billed shorebird in the family Scolopacidae.

This sandpiper has mottled gray, black, brown and red-brown upperparts, white rump, red-brown underparts with spots and bars, a long, straight dark bill and long, dark yellow-green legs. East and west coast birds are heavier barred and spotted, paler underparts and often show white bellies. [iBird]

Short-billed Dowitcher (Breeding Plumage)

A medium to large shorebird with a long bill, the Short-billed Dowitcher is a common and conspicuous migrant that uses a “sewing-machine” method of foraging across the mud flats. Its long bill is short only in comparison with the very similar Long-billed Dowitcher. [All About Birds]

Short-billed Dowitcher (Breeding Plumage)

Short-billed Dowitcher Facts [All About Birds]

• The nest and eggs of this species eluded discovery until 1906, and even that information was overlooked for a long while because they were attributed to the Long-billed Dowitcher. The nesting grounds of the eastern race were not discovered until the late 1950s.
• Although both sexes share incubation of the eggs, only the male takes care of the young once they hatch.
• The oldest recorded Short-billed Dowitcher was at least 13 years, 11 months old when it was recaptured and rereleased during banding operations in Delaware.