Greater Yellow Legs (Tringa melanoleuca)

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A Field Guide to Eastern Birds. by Roger Tory Peterson.

Return to Eastern Shorebirds

Color Photograph: © by and courtesy of Robert Benson

Color Photograph: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Greater Yellow Legs (Tringa melanoleuca)

Identification: Length from tip of bill to tip of tail 14 inches. A medium size wading bird with long, yellow legs. Head, back, and wings dark gray mottled with white spots. Head with a long, straight bill and a vaguely darker line through the eye. Undersides white, but sides lightly spotted with gray. Wings with outer half darker than the base of the wing (seen only in flight).

Similar Species:  The Greater Yellowlegs is extremely difficult to separate from the Lesser Yellowlegs. The Lesser Yellowlegs has the same, long yellow legs, markings, and coloration. However the Lesser Yellowlegs is a smaller bird (10 to 11 inches in length) and has a smaller, more petite appearance, and the legs appear larger in proportion to the rest of the body. The bill is slightly thinner, straighter, and narrower. The call of the Lesser Yellowlegs is a dull tu-tu, not the muscial whew-whew-whew of the Greater Yellowlegs. The Solitary Sandpiper has the same build and coloration of the Great Yellowlegs. However the legs are dark olive green and the eye has a prominent ring around it. The Willet is a larger bird (15 inches in length) than the Greater Yellowlegs and the legs are dark gray, not yellow. The Stilt Sandpiper has a brown coloration during the breeding season. The legs are yellow-green, not yellow. In particular the the tip of the bill is curved downward. The Upland Plover has long, yellow legs, but is brown, not gray and crown of the head is dark brown.

Breeding Range (see map below): The Greater Yellowlegs breeds along the northern edges of the Northern Boreal Forest and the southern parts of the tundra of Canada and southern Alaska.

Overwintering Range:  This species overwinters along the coastlines of the southern United States and southern California.

Habitat: The Great Yellowlegs breeds in muskeg, marshes, and tundra. Migrating individuals are found along the shores of lakes and ponds. Overwintering birds are typically found on tidal mudflats.

Food: Aquatic insects and other invertebrates. Also small fish.

Behavior: The Greater Yellowlegs is a wading bird and is commonly seen running about in shallow water. It sometimes wades in water as deep as its belly and even occasionally swims. This species is a noisy bird with a musical whew-whew-whew call.

Reproduction:  The clutch consists of 4 brown-blotched tan eggs. The eggs are in a shallow depression, usually on the ground in a wet, open spot.