Lesser yellowlegs Tringa flavipes

Identification Tips:

• Length: 8.75 inches
• Medium-sized long-legged shorebird
• Fairly long, thin, straight bill
• Dark bill rarely has a slightly paler base
• Bill length roughly equal to head length
• Bright yellow legs
• White tail crossed with thin black bars
• Juvenile similar to basic-plumaged adult
• Sexes similar

Adult alternate:

• Head, neck, and chest are finely streaked with black on a pale ground
• Whitish supercilium and eyering, dusky lores
• Flanks are barred finely with dusky
• Whitish belly
• Back and upperwings dark brown, dappled with black and white
• White notches on wing feathers appear as white spots on back

Adult basic:

• Head and neck pale, streaked sparsely with brown
• Breast, and to a lesser extent, flanks, streaked and spotted with gray-brown
• Dark brown back with pale flecks and feather edges
• Buff notches on wing feathers appear as white spots on back

Similar species:

Solitary Sandpiper is smaller, shorter-billed and has a bolder eye ring, a dark rump, and green legs. The Greater Yellowlegs is very similar but is larger, with a slightly upturned and proportionately longer bill. In alternate plumage the Lesser is more finely streaked about the head, neck, and flanks. The safest way to distinguish the two is the call: a harsh series of three or more notes in Greater Yellowlegs versus a softer, mellower single or double note of the Lesser Yellowlegs.

Length and wingspan from: Robbins, C.S., Bruun, B., Zim, H.S., (1966). Birds of North America. New York: Western Publishing Company, Inc.