Some Comments on the Species of Dowitchers in Alabama

Published in 1964

In the current state bird book (Imhof, 1962) I have been credited with records of the Long-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus scolopaceus) near Birmingham on July 3, 1936, and September 28, 1935. At the time this book was in preparation, I probably concurred with the author in this disposition of my dowitcher records, in the belief that the Short-billed Dowitcher (L. griseus) did not occur in the interior. Certainly at the time they were seen these birds were not differentiated as between the two forms, then thought to represent only subspecies. (Only after many more years of experience have I learned to make this distinction, and then only under favorable conditions.) In the same work (p. 252) it will be noted that no inland records of dowitchers were referred to the short-billed form, although it had long been known to occur inland in other states.


Author: Henry M. Stevenson
Volume Number: 12 Year Published: 1964
Issue Number: 3-4
Page Number: 40

Link to article: http://birdlife.aosbirds.org/1964/Vol 12 No. 3, 4_1964_p40-41.pdf
Link to the full issue of BirdLife: http://birdlife.aosbirds.org/1964/Vol 12 No. 3, 4_1964.pdf