Long-billed Dowitcher

How to find it

Because the two dowitchers look almost identical, voice is the best clue. A dowitcher calling from the ground while it feeds, or giving the sharp keek call, is a Long-billed. Look for shallow water about three inches deep or less. Freshwater ponds, reservoir edges and sewage ponds usually hold a few dowitchers in season. Check freshwater edges first, since this species turns up there more often than on salt water, and listen before you decide.

How to recognise it

This is a medium-sized sandpiper, about 29 cm long, with a long, straight, dark bill. Adults have yellowish legs and a tail barred black and white.

In winter plumage it is mostly drab gray, with a paler belly and a darker, unspotted breast. That is the plumage to expect here, since the bird is a non-breeding visitor.

Breeding adults look quite different, with a rufous head and underparts and a darker mottled back. In flight they show a large white patch on the upper rump.

Juveniles have tertials and scapulars with narrow, pale buff edges and little or no internal marking.

Wintering flocks are muddy gray-brown and blend into the muddy places where they feed.

What it sounds like

Recording: William Harmon, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

The dowitcher feeds in freshwater habitats with its bill pushed underwater in a stitching, sewing-machine motion. Watch for that steady rhythm, because it helps pick out a dowitcher among other shorebirds.

Wintering flocks twitter to each other as they probe deep into the mud. Long-billed birds are seen more often in freshwater than in saltwater.

Where it lives

In its non-breeding range the species uses mudflats, salt marshes, freshwater marshes and large freshwater lakes. It does not normally occur in forest.

One checklist places the winter range along the Pacific coast, from the Pacific Northwest south to northwestern Costa Rica. In this country it is therefore mainly a Pacific northwest bird.

Similar birds

The Short-billed Dowitcher is the look-alike. The Long-billed is generally darker in all plumages, and its bill is longer on average, though male Long-billed and female Short-billed overlap. Juvenile Short-billed Dowitchers show strong internal bars and loops and broad buff edging. The Long-billed was only treated as a separate species in 1950, and the flight call is the best field mark, especially in winter when the two look most alike.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Rica's official name is Agujeta Silbona, the one used today. A historical dictionary records it in a 1982 Quepos National Park bird list, which also gives Piquilargo as an alternative. An older Costa Rican name list also gives Agujeta Escolopácea. For birds not identified to species, the pair is labelled Agujeta Común/Silbona (Short-billed/Long-billed). Other Spanish names include Costurero Pico Largo, Agujeta Piquilarga, Becasa Piquilarga, Becasa pico largo, Agujeta de Pico Largo, Playero Pico Largo and Costurero.

Status and conservation

The official Costa Rican list gives it the status M, a migrant, and BirdLife describes Costa Rica as a place where it is a non-breeding visitor that does not breed.