Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca)

The Greater Yellowlegs is the largest of the two species of Yellowlegs native to North America, the other one being the Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipens)I saw this bird in the same mudflats where we also saw the Black-necked Stilt. The Greater Yellowlegs was with a Northern Shoveler duck, (see Northern Shoveler.) We saw only one Greater Yellowlegs, and this was pretty sad.

The Greater Yellowlegs has no subspecies, as this bird is Monotypic. Its cousin, the Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipens), is the same. They have long, thin, yellow legs (Hence the name, what else?) and a long black bill. (I suspect their diet contains heavily of worms and other invertebrates in the mudflats, as our Greater Yellowlegs was seen probing next to a duck.

Now that I have told some important facts of Greater Yellowlegs, you can look at our Gallery:

Greater Yellowlegs (Monotypic; I will just shorten it to M., but do not get confused with male!) 

– Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipens) 

Greater Yellowlegs

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *