Least Seedsnipe - BirdForum Opus

Male above, female below
Photo by BirdsPeru
Lomas de Lachay, near Lima, Peru

Thinocorus rumicivorus

Identification

15cm.
Mottled upperside and greyish-white underside. Male has grey head, neck and upper breast with a black marking on underside. Legs are orange and bill horn-colored.

Distribution

Falkland Islands to southern Argentina and north to Ecuador.

Taxonomy

Subspecies

Clements recognizes these subspecies[1]:

• T. r. cuneicauda:

• Arid littoral of formerly southwestern Ecuador (Santa Elena Peninsula; apparently extirpated); lowlands of northwestern Peru (north to Lambayeque) south to northern Chile (Tarapacá)

• T. r. bolivianus:

• Altiplano of southern Peru to northern Chile and extreme north-western Argentina

• T. r. rumicivorus:

• Patagonia to Tierra del Fuego; winters to central Argentina and Chile

Habitat

Mostly dry or at least sparsely vegetated areas both lowlands and (subspecies bolivianus) high altitude.

Behaviour

It covers its eggs with sand when it leaves the nest.

References

1. Clements, J. F., P. C. Rasmussen, T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, A. Spencer, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2023. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2023. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Gill, F, D Donsker, and P Rasmussen (Eds). 2023. IOC World Bird List (v 13.2). Doi 10.14344/IOC.ML.13.2. http://www.worldbirdnames.org/
3. Toner, Sarah (2020). Least Seedsnipe (Thinocorus rumicivorus), version 2.0. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg, S. M. Billerman, and B. K. Keeney, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.leasee1.02

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Least Seedsnipe. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 11 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Least_Seedsnipe

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