The Asian dowitcher (''Limnodromus semipalmatus'') is a rare medium-large

wader 245px, A flock of Dunlins and Red knots">Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflat ...

Description

Adults have dark legs and a long straight dark bill, somewhat shorter than that of the

long-billed dowitcher The long-billed dowitcher (''Limnodromus scolopaceus'') is a medium-sized shorebird with a relatively long bill belonging to the sandpiper family, Scolopacidae. In breeding plumage, adults are characterized by a beautiful rufous head and underpar ...

. The body is brown on top and reddish underneath in breeding

plumage Plumage ( "feather") is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, ...

. The tail has a black and white barred pattern. The winter plumage is largely grey. Their breeding habitat is grassy wetlands in inland

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

and

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer Manc ...

. They migrate to southeast

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

as far south as northern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, although both the breeding and wintering areas are poorly known. This bird is always found on coasts during migration and wintering. These birds forage by probing in shallow water or on wet mud. They mainly eat insects, mollusks, crustaceans and marine worms, but also eat some plant material.

Closer species

The confusion species for this bird is not, as might be expected, one of the American

dowitcher The three dowitchers are medium-sized long-billed wading birds in the genus ''Limnodromus''. The English name "dowitchers" is from Iroquois, recorded in English by the 1830s. The OED's earliest example is from 1841, but full-text searching giv ...

s, which in any case do not overlap in range, because the Asian bird is much larger. It closely resembles a small

bar-tailed godwit The bar-tailed godwit (''Limosa lapponica'') is a large and strongly migratory wader in the family Scolopacidae, which feeds on bristle-worms and shellfish on coastal mudflats and estuaries. It has distinctive red breeding plumage, long legs, an ...

, although the dowitcher "sewing machine" feeding action and the yelping call are distinctions from the more widespread bird.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1273690

Asian dowitcher The Asian dowitcher (''Limnodromus semipalmatus'') is a rare medium-large wader. Description Adults have dark legs and a long straight dark bill, somewhat shorter than that of the long-billed dowitcher. The body is brown on top and reddish under ...

Birds of Asia Birds of Manchuria Birds of Mongolia

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Description

Closer species

Further reading

References