The three dowitchers are medium-sized long-billed wading

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

s in the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

''Limnodromus''. The English name "dowitcher" is from

Iroquois The Iroquois ( ), also known as the Five Nations, and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the Endonym and exonym, endonym Haudenosaunee ( ; ) are an Iroquoian languages, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Ind ...

, recorded in English by the 1830s. The OED's earliest example is from 1841, but full-text searching gives results that suggest it was already in common use by the mid-1830s. They resemble

godwit Godwits are a group of four large, long-billed, long-legged and strongly bird migration, migratory waders of the bird genus ''Limosa''. Their long bills allow them to probe deeply in the sand for aquatic worms and mollusca, molluscs. In their ...

s in body and bill shape, and the reddish underparts in summer, but are much shorter legged, more like snipes, to which they are more closely related. All three are strongly migratory. The two

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

n species are difficult to separate in most plumages, and were considered a single species for many years. The

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

n bird is rare and not well known.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Limnodromus'' was introduced in 1833 by the German naturalist

Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied Prince Alexander Philipp Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied (23 September 1782 – 3 February 1867) was a German explorer, ethnologist and natural history, naturalist. He led a pioneering expedition to southeast Brazil between 1815 and 1817, from which t ...

to accommodate a single species, the short-billed dowitcher. The name combines the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

''limnē'' meaning "marsh" with ''-dromos'' meaning "-racer" or "-runner". The dowitcher species are:

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q838747 * Bird genera