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The long-billed dowitcher (Limnodromus scolopaceus) is a medium-sized shorebird. The genus name Limnodromus is Ancient Greek  from limne, "marsh" and dromos, "racer". The specific  scolopaceus is New Latin for "snipe-like", from Latin scolopax, scolopacis, a snipe or woodcock. The English name is from Iroquois and was first recorded in 1841.

The name "long-billed dowitcher" can be confusing as some short-billed dowitcher have longer bills than long-billed dowitcher. The long-billed dowitcher are more likely to be seen near fresh water than the short-billed dowitcher.

Taxonomy
Dowitchers are sandpipers that are most closely related to snipes and woodcocks. Within the dowitcher genus Limnodromus there are three species, the short-billed dowitcher, long-billed dowitcher and asian dowitcher. The long-billed dowitcher was first described by Thomas Say in 1823 under the name Limnodromus scolopacea. The taxonomy of the long-billed and short-billed dowitcher has presented difficulties in part due to the variability of the short-billed dowitcher.

For around 100 years the long-billed dowitcher and short-billed dowitcher were recognized as two distinct species. By 1927 the long-billed dowitcher was made a sub-species of the short-billed dowitcher, as the western form, due to bird observations which were similar to both species linking the two geographically. It was not until Frank Pitelka published his monograph, in 1950, that the two dowitcher species were once again accepted as being two distinct species. Further research has shown that the two species are estimated to have diverged genetically more than four million years ago.

Description
Adult long-billed dowitcher have two plumages a breeding and winter plumage. In both breeding and winter plumages the long-billed dowitcher has a whitish supercilium and dark loral stripe that continuous past the eye. The tail is barred black and white with the black being almost twice the width of the white and white wedges on the rump from the tail to the middle of the back.

Long-billed dowitcher are in breeding plumage from approximately May to late August or early September. The long-billed dowitcher have black bars on their breast with orangish red bellies. The older the feathers get the less the black bars may appear leaving the breast dark redish. The crown and the back are a mix of brown, black and buff markings.

When in the winter plumage the long-billed dowitcher is very difficult to identify in the field with the short-billed dowitcher. The long-billed dowitcher have flanks with dusky or dark gray vertical bars. The chest is uniformly dark which contrasts more with the white belly. The gray of the breast also gradually lightens as it reaches the chin.

The juvenile plumage of the long-billed dowitcher is similar to that of the breeding adult except for being paler. Juvenile long-billed dowitcher can be distinguished from the short-billed dowitcher by the differences in the tertiary feathers. On the long-billed dowitcher these feathers are dark gray with narrow buff edges with internal markings so dull they seem to lack them altogether. In juvenile birds the upper parts are fringed chestnut rather than buffy brown and their uniformly gray breast is slightly demarcated from the pale rufous lower belly and breasts.

The bill of the long-billed dowitcher ranges from 62 mm to 72 mm with males having bill lengths near the smaller scale reflecting their smaller body size. Bills are typically very straight and black becoming yellowish olive-green near the base.

Measurements :


 * Length: 11.4 in (29 cm)
 * Weight: 3.1-4.6 oz (88-131 g)
 * Wingspan: 18.5-19.3 in (47-49 cm)

Distribution and Habitat
Long-billed dowitcher are migrating birds breeding in the Arctic and wintering in the south of North America. The long-billed dowitcher breed in north western Alaska along the coast to Franklin Bay, Canada. In Russia the long-billed dowitcher breeds in eastern Siberia, on the Chukotka Peninsula and along the coast of the Bering Sea. In winter the long-billed dowitcher takes up residence in southern California down along the Pacific Coast to El Salvador throughout Mexico along the Gulf Coast and across the Florida peninsula.

The long-billed dowitcher prefers wet meadow habitats near sources of freshwater. The arctic coastal tundra is an ecoregion which best describes the habitat of the long-billed dowitcher during the breeding season. The long-billed dowitcher are often found in freshwater habitats anywhere from lakes to short-vegetation marshes to wet fields.

Migration
The long-billed dowitcher will migrate later in the fall than the short-billed dowitcher and earlier in the spring. The spring migrations occurs from February to May with birds moving up along the Pacific coast and interior. The long-billed dowitcher will also migrate through the Great Plains on the western side with a vast majority moving through Alberta.

The fall migrations generally occurs from July to October with the adult long-billed dowitcher beginning to migrate south in July while juveniles begin migrating through September to October. From their breeding grounds the long-billed dowitcher will either migrate south along the Pacific Coast, across the Canadian Prairies and down the Great Basin or through Ontario towards Florida.

Diet
The long-billed dowitcher, during breeding, consumes large quantities of chironomidae larva and larva of other insects with occasional plant matter and seeds. During migration and in their wintering region, the long-billed dowitcher consumes a far greater range of food types. Dowitchers eat everything from polychaetes to insect larva to crustaceans to mollusks.

Vocalization
The call of the long-billed dowitcher is a sharp or strident keek note given singly or in series. The song of the long-billed dowitcher is a series of quick phrases sounding like peet-peet, pee-ter-wee-too or in other descriptions like pipipipipi-chi-der. The long-billed dowitcher is a more vocal shorebird often making a keek or tu call heard when in feeding flocks unlike the short-billed dowitcher which are generally silent on the ground.

Reproduction
Male long-billed dowitcher will court females by first singing to them and then compete with other males by perusing the female in flight. Once mated the male and female dowitcher form a pair bond. Long-billed dowitchers nest in wet areas of tall grasses in the troughs of raised mounds and ridges. The nest is a simple depression in the ground usually lined with grass and leaves.

Long-billed dowitcher lays four eggs per brood every year having only one brood per season. On rare occasions the long-billed dowitcher will lay three eggs. The eggs are oval to pear shaped and range from being a buff olive to a greenish or blueish glaucous. The eggs are also heavily splotched with varying shades of brown near the base of the large end with the underlying marks being dark gray. Incubation of the eggs is approximately twenty days in which both sexes participate. Long-billed dowitcher chicks are precocial and downy being able to feed themselves within a few hours of hatching. In the long-billed dowitcher it is the male which takes care of the chicks until they have fledged.