DanT1999

(Gallinago delicata) I shot this photo in the late afternoon on April 9, 2013 at the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve near Encino, California. I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to get a shot like this of this species because most of the times I have encountered snipes is when I have inadvertently stepped into their habitat and scared them out of their hiding places with their sudden flight scaring me in the process as well. This bird, however, was very cooperatively foraging out in the open and didn’t mind my presence so much.

The most likely birds that Wilson’s snipe could be confused with are probably the long-billed and short-billed dowitcher, but to tell them apart is straightforward. Unlike the dowitchers, Wilson’s snipe has stripes on the back and crown as well as much shorter legs. Also, the behavior is markedly different. While dowitchers tend to forage in large groups on open mudflats, Wilson’s snipe is more solitary and very secretive, often remaining under the cover of thick vegetation. When spooked, the Wilson’s snipe makes a croaking sound and soars high into the air before settling to a new spot, a different behavior from other sandpipers.

Wilson’s snipes are fairly common winter visitors and spring and fall migrants in Southern California although they can be a bit difficult to find because of their secretive nature. They have a wide range which includes most of North America and parts of South America. One interesting fact I read is that the female typically lays four eggs and the male will hatch the first two chicks and leave the nest with them leaving the female to care for the other two chicks, the parents apparently never interacting with each other again.

_{Facts I cited about this species come from allaboutbirds.org and personal experience.}

(Limnodromus griseus) I shot this photo in the early evening on September 7, 2010 at Malibu Lagoon State Beach in Malibu, California. The bird in this photo, a fall migrant, has not yet completed its transition to non-breeding plumage. Short-billed dowitchers, depending on the subspecies, breed in the taiga regions of Canada or Alaska. They are common spring and fall migrants through Southern California and uncommonly a few stick around during winter.

The long-billed dowitcher and the short-billed dowitcher are notoriously difficult to distinguish from each other, and it’s one of the greatest ID challenges birders in North America face. They can most reliably be distinguished by voice. The long-billed dowitcher’s call sounds sort of like “eek” “eek” “eek” whereas the short-billed dowitcher’s call sounds sort of like “toot” “toot” “toot”, On average, the short-billed dowitcher does in fact have a shorter bill (which sometimes droops slightly at the end) than the long-billed dowitcher, but there is a considerable amount of overlap and variation among individual birds so judging bill length alone is not usually sufficient. There are a variety of subtle plumage characteristics that can be helpful to evaluate, but in any event without hearing the bird you have to rely on a combination of characteristics to make the ID. Short-billed has a preference for coastal estuaries and saltwater marshes whereas long-billed prefers freshwater, but both species can still be found in the same habitats at the same time.

I will describe two of the characteristics that I find most helpful to separate the two if the birds are silent. One is the “loral angle” which is found if you draw a straight line from the middle of the bill to below the eye and another line from the middle of the bill to the middle of the eye. A wide angle between these two lines is characteristic of short-billed dowitcher and the converse for long-billed dowitcher. The other characteristic is the curvature of the supercilium (i.e., eyebrow); strong curvature is a characteristic of short-billed and flatness of long-billed.

_{Facts I cited are from New advances in the field identification of dowitchers by Cin-Ty Lee and Andrew Birch.}

(Limnodromus scolopaceus) I shot this photo in the late afternoon on April 20, 2011 at Del Rey Lagoon Park in Playa del Rey, California. The bird in this photo, a spring migrant, has almost completed its molt into breeding plumage. Long-billed dowitchers breed in the high Arctic tundra of northern Canada and western Alaska but are common spring and fall migrants through Southern California and a few stick around here through winter.

The long-billed dowitcher and the short-billed dowitcher are notoriously difficult to distinguish from each other, and it’s one of the greatest ID challenges birders in North America face. They can most reliably be distinguished by voice. The long-billed dowitcher’s call sounds sort of like “eek” “eek” “eek” whereas the short-billed dowitcher’s call sounds sort of like “toot” “toot” “toot”, On average, the long-billed dowitcher does in fact have a longer bill than the short-billed dowitcher, but there is a considerable amount of overlap and variation among individual birds so judging bill length alone is not usually sufficient. There are a variety of subtle plumage characteristics that can be helpful to evaluate, but in any event without hearing the bird you have to rely on a combination of characteristics to make the ID. Short-billed has a preference for coastal estuaries and saltwater marshes whereas long-billed prefers freshwater, but both species can still be found in the same habitats at the same time.

I will describe two of the characteristics that I find most helpful to separate the two if the birds are silent. One is the “loral angle” which is found if you draw a straight line from the middle of the bill to below the eye and another line from the middle of the bill to the middle of the eye. A wide angle between these two lines is characteristic of short-billed dowitcher and the converse for long-billed dowitcher. The other characteristic is the curvature of the supercilium (i.e., eyebrow); strong curvature is a characteristic of short-billed and flatness of long-billed.

_{Facts I cited are from New advances in the field identification of dowitchers by Cin-Ty Lee and Andrew Birch.}