The three dowitchers are medium-sized long-billed wading birds in the genus Limnodromus. The English name "dowitcher" is from Iroquois, recorded in English by the 1830s.[2]
| Dowitcher | |
|---|---|
| |
| Short-billed dowitcher (Limnodromus griseus) | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Charadriiformes |
| Family: | Scolopacidae |
| Subfamily: | Scolopacinae |
| Genus: | Limnodromus Wied-Neuwied, 1833 |
| Type species | |
| Scolopax noveboracensis[1] = Scolopax grisea Gmelin. JF, 1789
| |
| Species | |
|
See text. | |
They resemble godwits in body and bill shape, and the reddish underparts in summer, but are much shorter legged, more like snipes, to which they are more closely related.[3] All three are strongly migratory.
The two North American species are difficult to separate in most plumages, and were considered a single species for many years. The Asian bird is rare and not well known.
Taxonomy
editThe genus Limnodromus was introduced in 1833 by the German naturalist Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied to accommodate a single species, the short-billed dowitcher.[4][5] The name combines the Ancient Greek limnē meaning "marsh" with -dromos meaning "-racer" or "-runner".[6]
The dowitcher species are:[7]
| Common name | Scientific name and subspecies | Range | Size and ecology | IUCN status and estimated population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Short-billed dowitcher
|
Limnodromus griseus (Gmelin, JF, 1789) |
North America, Central America, the Caribbean, and northern South America |
Size: Habitat: Diet: |
VU
|
| Long-billed dowitcher
|
Limnodromus scolopaceus (Say, 1822) |
North America |
Size: Habitat: Diet: |
NT
|
| Asian dowitcher
|
Limnodromus semipalmatus (Blyth, 1848) |
Siberia and Manchuria. | Size: Habitat: Diet: |
NT
|
References
edit- ^ "Alcidae". aviansystematics.org. The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
- ^ "Dowitcher". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.) The OED's earliest example is from 1841, but full-text searching gives results that suggest it was already in common use by the mid-1830s.
- ^ Thomas, Gavin H.; Wills, Matthew A.; Székely, Tamás (2004). "A supertree approach to shorebird phylogeny". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 4: 28. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-4-28. PMC 515296. PMID 15329156. 28.
- ^ Wied-Neuwied, Maximilian (1832). Beiträge zur Naturgeschichte von Brasilien (in German). Vol. 4, Part xx. Weimar: Im Verlage des Landes-Industrie-Comptoirs. p. 716.
- ^ Peters, James Lee, ed. (1934). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 2. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 272.
- ^ Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 227. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
- ^ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (August 2022). "Sandpipers, snipes, coursers". IOC World Bird List Version 12.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
External links
edit- Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). . New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.