Long-billed Dowitcher
(Limnodromus scolopaceus)

Overview

Summary

© Jukka Jantunen
For additional photos and vocalizations, visit Dendroica. (Link opens in a new window.)

Long-billed Dowitchers breed in the western Arctic and winter along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States and Mexico. Migration monitoring surveys suggest that Long-billed Dowitchers have decreased in abundance in Canada relative to about 1970, but variability in results and problems in identifying the species lessen the reliability of this status assessment. Long-billed Dowitchers often forage in agricultural wetlands and polluted estuaries and are known to be exposed to harmful levels of contaminants in some areas. This species has been identified as a priority for conservation and/or stewardship in one or more Bird Conservation Region Strategies in Canada.

Designations

Population status

Population estimate

Distribution maps

• BirdLife International / NatureServe

Migration strategy, occurrence

Responsibility for conservation of world population

Conservation and management

During the non-breeding season, Long-billed Dowitchers forage for invertebrates by probing deeply into the rich sediment of estuaries and agricultural wetlands in agricultural areas. Contaminants can accumulate in the sediment in these areas; Long-billed Dowitchers have been observed to carry high burdens of persistent organic pollutants, such as DDE (White et al. 1983).

Bird conservation region strategies

Environment and Climate Change Canada and partners have developed Bird Conservation Region Strategies in each of Canada’s Bird Conservation Regions (BCRs). In these strategies, selected species are identified as priorities for one or more of the following reasons:

• conservation concerns (i.e., species vulnerable due to population size, distribution, population trend, abundance, or threats)
• stewardship responsibilities (i.e., species that typify the regional avifauna or have a large proportion of their range or population in the sub-region)
• management concerns (i.e., species that require ongoing management because of their socio-economic importance as game species, or because of their impacts on other species or habitats)
• other concerns (i.e., species deemed a priority by regional experts for other reasons than those listed above or because they are listed as species at risk or concern at the provincial level)

Select any of the sub-regions below to view the BCR strategy for additional details.

References

• Takekawa, J.Y., and N. Warnock. 2000. Long-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus scolopaceus), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Takekawa, J.Y., and N. Warnock. 2000. Long-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus scolopaceus), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. (Link)
• White, D.H., C.A. Mitchell and T.E. Kaiser. 1983. Temporal accumulation of organochlorine pesticides in shorebirds wintering on the south Texas coast, 1979–80. Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 12:241-245.