- Tringa guttifer
Identification
Photo taken: Big Ash Pond, Kapar Power Station, Selangor, Malaysia
The Spotted Greenshank or Nordmann's Greenshank, Tringa guttifer, is a wader in the large family Scolopacidae, the typical waders.
It is a 29-32 cm long medium-sized sandpiper with slightly upturned, bicoloured bill and shortish yellow legs. Breeding adults are boldly marked, with whitish spots and spangling on blackish upperside, heavily streaked head and upper neck, broad blackish crescentic spots on lower neck and breast and darker lores. With white spots on the black upper side and black spots on the white underside, Nordmann's greenshank is easily recognisable. The spots of the upper side blend together, forming streaks on the head and upper neck, whereas on the underside they fade out altogether towards the hind belly. In flight, the uniformly grey tail can be seen extending beyond the tips of the toes. The beak is long and straight for probing into mudflats and the legs are also long. Juveniles are browner than adults, with a pale brown breast and wing edges.
It is an endangered species, and was not available for molecular analyses. It is fairly aberrant and was formerly placed in the monotypic genus Pseudototanus. It appears closest overall to the semipalmata-flavipes and the stagnatilis-totanus-glareola groups, though it also has some similarities to the Greater Yellowlegs and Common Greenshank
Distribution
The Spotted Greenshank breeds in eastern Russia along the south-western and northern coasts of the Sea of Okhotsk and on Sakhalin Island. Its non-breeding range is not fully understood, but significant numbers have been recorded in South Korea, mainland China, Hong Kong (China), and Taiwan (China) on passage, and in Bangladesh, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Peninsular Malaysia in winter. It has also been recorded on passage or in winter in Japan, North Korea, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar (which may prove to be an important part of its wintering range), Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia. There are unconfirmed records from Nepal and Guam (to US). It probably has a population of 500-1,000 individuals.
Taxonomy
Habitat
During the breeding season Nordmann's greenshank feeds in wet coastal meadows and coastal mudflats, and nests in sparse larch (Larix) forest.
Behaviour
Nordmann's greenshanks display and breed from May until July. Loose clusters of three to ten pairs build nests of larch twigs and lichens, on wind-bent larch trunks or thick branches in sparsely wooded swamps. Four eggs are laid in the nest, which is well concealed from above by the tree canopy. Both the male and female contribute to incubation, and the eggs hatch between the last week of June and mid July. Once hatched, the adults lead the chicks to coastal meadows where the broods stay near shallow ponds obscured by dense vegetation. They all feed on sticklebacks, terrestrial invertebrates, small crustaceans, molluscs, and worms. Adults leave on the return migration in late July and early August, but juveniles remain longer, leaving in early September. At the wintering grounds, they consume small fish, crustaceans, larvae, and small molluscs, and have a preference for crabs. They feed by probing into mud, catching prey from the water surface, running after crabs and plunging the head into deeper water.
