Lesser Yellowlegs Tringa flavipes 小黃腳鷸
Category I. Accidental.
IDENTIFICATION
23-25 cm. Similar in size and structure to Marsh Sandpiper but differs in having a slightly sturdier, build, a more drawn-out rear end, a slightly shorter and thicker bill and a square white rump patch above a closely barred tail. Legs always bright yellow. The primary projection is long, and the legs protrude well beyond the tail in flight. Upperparts brown with whitish notches along the feather edges, superficially similar to Wood Sandpiper, though differs from that species in lacking the very dark cap and contrastingly pale supercilium behind the eye. Chest is diffusely streaked greyish.
Juveniles have extensive clear-cut white spots against a plain brown background.
VOCALISATIONS
Typically, a high-pitched ‘tyoo’, often in a short series, similar to Marsh Sandpiper.
OCCURRENCE
1986: one at Tsim Bei Tsui on 19 October and at Mai Po NR on 2 November (Kennerley 1987).
1990: one at Mai Po NR on 1st and 14-16 April.
RANGE & SYSTEMATICS
Monotypic. Breeds only in North America from western Alaska to north central Quebec; winters in southern U.S.A. and Central and South America (Tibbits and Moskoff 2020). In China only recorded in HK and Taiwan (Liu and Chen 2021). Also recorded in Japan (Brazil 2018).
CONSERVATION STATUS
IUCN: VULNERABLE. Population trend decreasing at a rate of 23% to 49% per three generations, possibly largely due to unsustainable harvesting.
Brazil, M. 2018. Birds of Japan. Helm, London.
Kennerley, P. R. (1987). Lesser Yellowlegs Tringa flavipes at Tsim Bei Tsui and Mai Po. The first record for Hong Kong and China. Hong Kong Bird Report 1986: 72-74.
Liu, Y. and S. H. Chen (eds) (2021). The CNG Field Guide to the Birds of China (in Chinese). Hunan Science and Technology Publication House, Changsha.
Tibbitts, T. L. and W. Moskoff (2020). Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (A. F. Poole, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.lesye
