Short-billed Dowitcher

Open encyclopedia reference

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.

It is an inhabitant of North America, Central America, the Caribbean, and northern South America. It is strongly migratory; it completely vacates its breeding areas during the snow-bound months. This species favors a variety of habitats, including tundra in the north to ponds and mudflats in the south. It feeds on invertebrates often by rapidly probing its bill into mud in a sewing machine fashion. It and the very similar long-billed dowitcher were considered one species until 1950. Field identification of the two American Limnodromus remains difficult today. Distinguishing wintering or juvenile short-billed dowitchers from the long-billed species is very difficult and, even given examination of their subtlety different body shapes, cannot always be isolated to a particular species. They differ most substantially in vocalizations. The names of American dowitchers are misleading, as there is much overlap in their bill lengths. Only a small percentage can be identified by this character alone.

Wikipedia contributors, Short-billed dowitcher; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T07:54:53.243049+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Limnodromus griseus (J. F. Gmelin, 1789)

Name authority

(J. F. Gmelin, 1789)

Common name

Short-billed Dowitcher

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Aves

Order

Charadriiformes

Family

Scolopacidae

Genus

Limnodromus

Extinction status

Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classAves
9. orderCharadriiformes
10. familyScolopacidae Rafinesque, 1815
11. genusLimnodromus Wied-Neuwied, 1833
12. speciesLimnodromus griseus (J. F. Gmelin, 1789)

Close classified relatives

No other member of this genus is present in the selected snapshot.

Browse 81 records assigned to Scolopacidae.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=176675 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:6QDFK. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.