Stilt Sandpiper / Dowitchers. he's normally the one who gives the speeches at award shows. Nonbreeding adults are grayish above and on the breast, with a pale belly. We observed a large variety of birds including plovers, turnstones, sandpipers, dowitchers, yellowlegs and Whimbrel and American Oystercatcher. See photo of a juvenile Short-billed Dowitcher HERE See photo of a juvenile Long-billed Dowitcher HERE difficult to tell apart. In breeding plumage, Short-billed Dowitchers are lovely orange, brown, and golden shorebirds with chunky bodies and very long bills (despite the name). Dowitchers can be distinguished from other shorebirds by their unique feeding behavior. We've been through that phase, and not only with Twice. This difference in angle gives the two species distinctly different facial gestalts and also greatly aids in the identification of dowitchers in photographs, which are of course silent. well, i was thinking of getting two winter white dwarf hamsters, but how will i be able to tell them apart? Dowitcher definition is - any of several long-billed wading birds (especially Limnodromus griseus and L. scolopaceus of the family Scolopacidae) related to the sandpipers. Notes: The two dowitchers found in North America are Long-billed and Short-billed. To work through these sticky IDs, birdwatchers need to double as bird listeners, too. There! The photograph on the cover page of the American Ornithologists' Union's prestigious Birds of North America account for short-billed dowiccher (Jehl et al. DOWITCHERS FOR ABACO TWITCHERS (THE LONG AND THE SHORT OF IT…) Long-billed (Limnodromus scolopaceus)? Or Short-billed (Limnodromus griseus)? Look at those bills! But having said that, their close relatives, the Short-billed Dowitchers, confusingly have bills much the same length! These tubby, long-billed shorebirds plunge their bills deep into wet mud or sand to find invertebrate food. Aah~ I’m not a fan of TWICE, but due to their prominence, I’ve seen them enough to be able to tell them apart. The one on the right has the water reach his belly, while the birds right around him have leg showing. Many 'difficult' birds may be reliably seperated much of the time by range, habitat or habits. So what's the difference? but dowitchers in other Which one is that over there? However, as I had taken some reasonably close and reasonably clear photos of the bird, I had high hopes that it would be possible to identify. They are very difficult to tell apart. How-ever, since short-billed dowitchers arrive from the north before the long-billed, any dowitchers seen early in the fall season are of the former species. The two species of dowitchers are also difficult to tell apart. Eastern and Western Meadowlarks, dowitchers in winter plumage, and several kinds of flycatchers all fall into this category. Identification can be tricky and is complicated by a handful of factors: There are many lookalikes that are really hard to tell apart, more so when examined from a distance; The young of the year are often somewhat different from adults, usually their plumage is brighter and crisper. Fresh juveniles have blackish back feathers neatly edged rufous, buffy, or pale rusty. Leg length is supposed to be another mark, with Long-billed Dowitchers having longer bills. Everyone knows it's hard enough to tell the two dowitchers apart. However, on the Bolivar Peninsula the situation is reversed. Wintering flocks of Long-billed Dowitchers are muddy gray-brown birds that match their muddy foraging sites—a far cry from the intricate black, rufous, brown, and gold brocade of breeding birds on their tundra summer homes. Note chunky, front-heavy posture and sewing-machine-like head motion while feeding.