Limnodromus

Cladus: Eukaryota
Supergroup: Opisthokonta
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Classis: Aves
Subclassis: Carinatae
Infraclassis: Neornithes
Parvclassis: Neognathae
Ordo: Charadriiformes
Subordo: Charadrii
Familia: Scolopacidae
Genus: Limnodromus
Species: L. griseus - L. scolopaceus - L. semipalmatus

Name

Limnodromus Wied-Neuwied, 1833

Reference

Beitrage zur Naturegeschichte von Brasilien 4 p.716

The three dowitchers are medium-sized long-billed wading birds. They resemble godwits in body and bill shape, and the reddish underparts in summer, but are much shorter legged, more like snipe to which they are also somewhat closer related (Thomas et al., 2004). All three are strongly migratory.

The two North American species are difficult to separate in most plumages, and were considered a single species for many years. The Asian bird is rare and not well-known.

Species are:

* Family: Scolopacidae (part)
o Short-billed Dowitcher, Limnodromus griseus
o Long-billed Dowitcher, Limnodromus scolopaceus
o Asiatic Dowitcher, Limnodromus semipalmatus

References

* Thomas, Gavin H.; Wills, Matthew A. & Székely, Tamás (2004): A supertree approach to shorebird phylogeny. BMC Evol. Biol. 4: 28. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-4-28 PDF fulltext Supplementary Material