 Breeding evidence |
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Click on plot to view table of mean abundance
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Number of squares
Long-term BBS trends
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Mean abundance (number of birds detected per 5 min. point count) and percentage of squares occupied by region Bird Conservation Regions [abund. plot]
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Atlas Results
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Excerpts Adapted from the Birds of Saskatchewan:
The Short-billed Dowitcher is a bird of the muskegs of the boreal forest. It is found in 3 areas, each with its own subspecies: L. g. caurinus breeds in south coastal Alaska, southwestern Yukon, and northwestern British Columbia (including Haida Gwaii); L. g. hendersoni breeds in central and northern portions of the Prairie Provinces and northern Ontario; and L. g. griseus breeds in western Labrador and central Quebec, overlapping with hendersoni in the James Bay area of Nunavut. Collectively, the 3 subspecies winter (mostly coastally) from California and Virginia to Peru and Brazil.
During the breeding season the Short-billed Dowitcher favours fens, open bogs, and grass and sedge meadows associated with muskegs and lake edges. In spring migration it frequents the shallow waters of sloughs, saline lakes, and flooded sedge and grass meadows, often in association with Long-billed Dowitchers. In fall migration it frequents mudflats when available, or wet meadows and short emergent vegetation where it can be difficult to observe (PST).
This dowitcher is a fairly common spring and fall transient in better vegetated wetlands (Smith 1996). Due to the inaccessibility of its nesting grounds, its Saskatchewan breeding status is little known. Only L. g. hendersoni of the western interior of Canada appears to breed throughout the boreal forest from Lake Athabasca south to Doré and Montreal Lakes and perhaps Red Earth (ibid.).
Original text by Philip S. Taylor. Text adapted by Daniel J. Sawatzky
Read more about the Short-billed Dowitcher in the Birds of Saskatchewan here.
Recommended citation: Latremouille, L. M. 2025. Short-billed Dowitcher in Latremouille, L. M., S. L. Van Wilgenburg, C. B. Jardine, D. Lepage, A. R. Couturier, D. Evans, D. Iles, and K. L. Drake (eds.). 2025. The Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Saskatchewan, 2017-2021. Birds Canada. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan https://sk.birdatlas.ca/accounts/speciesaccount.jsp?sp=SBDO&lang=en [14 Nov 2025]
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