Greater yellowlegs

The greater yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca) is a large

North American shorebird, similar in appearance to the
smaller lesser yellowlegs. Its closest relative, however,
is the greenshank, which together with the spotted redshank form a close-knit group. Among them, these three
species show all the basic leg and foot colors found in the
shanks, demonstrating that this character is paraphyletic
(Pereira & Baker, 2005). They are also the largest shanks
apart from the willet, which is altogether more robustly
built. The greater yellowlegs and the greenshank share
a coarse, dark, and fairly crisp breast pattern as well
as much black on the shoulders and back in breeding
plumage.

It often walks in sand or mud and leaves clear tracks; it

can be possible to gather information about this species
using its tracks.
The call is harsher than that of the lesser yellowlegs.
Large sandpipers were once popular game
for bird hunters. In the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries, many a fashionable
restaurant featured gourmet meals with willet
or curlew. Now shorebirds are protected, but
only after many species were brought to the
edge of extinction. The common names of
large pipers often derive from the hunting era.
Yellowlegs, for instance, are also called tattlers
because these high-strung birds would be the
rst to raise a noisy alarm when shooters were
spotted.[2]

Adults have long yellow legs and a long, thin, dark bill
which has a slight upward curve and is longer than the
head. The body is grey-brown on top and white underneath; the neck and breast are streaked with dark brown.
The rump is white. It ranges in length from 29 to 40 cm
(11 to 16 in) and in weight from 111 to 250 g (3.9 to 8.8
oz).

1 Footnotes
[1] BirdLife International (2012). "Tringa melanoleuca".
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2.
International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
[2] Sherr, Evelyn B. (2015). Marsh Mud and Mummichogs:
An Intimate Natural History of Coastal Georgia. U. Of
Georgia Press. p. 154.

2 References
Juvenile

Pereira, S. L., & Baker, A. J. (2005). Multiple Gene Evidence for Parallel Evolution and
Retention of Ancestral Morphological States in
the Shanks (Charadriiformes:
Scolopacidae).
Condor 107 (3): 514526. DOI: 10.1650/00105422(2005)107[0514:MGEFPE]2.0.CO;2
Abstract.

Their breeding habitat is bogs and marshes in the boreal

forest region of Canada and Alaska. They nest on the
ground, usually in well-hidden locations near water. The
three to four eggs average 50 mm (2.0 in) in length and
33 mm (1.3 in) in breadth and weigh about 28 g (0.99
oz). The incubation period is 23 days. The young leave
the nest within 24 hours of hatching and then leave the
vicinity of the nest within two days.

3 External links

They migrate to the Atlantic and Pacic coasts of the

United States and south to South America. They are very
rare vagrants to western Europe.

Greater yellowlegs species account - Cornell Lab of

Ornithology

These birds forage in shallow water, sometimes using

their bills to stir up the water. They mainly eat insects
and small sh, as well as crustaceans and marine worms.

Greater yellowlegs - Tringa melanoleuca - USGS

Patuxent Bird Identication InfoCenter
1

3
Tringa melanoleuca on Avibase
Greater yellowlegs videos, photos, and sounds at the
Internet Bird Collection
Greater yellowlegs photo gallery at VIREO (Drexel
University)
Interactive range map of Tringa melanoleuca at
IUCN Red List maps

EXTERNAL LINKS

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