Greater Yellowlegs
Tringa melanoleuca
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
- KingdomAnimalia (Animals)
- PhylumChordata (Chordates)
- ClassAves (Birds)
- OrderCharadriiformes (Shorebirds and Allies)
- FamilyScolopacidae (Sandpipers and Allies)
- GenusTringa (Shanks, Tattlers, and Allies)
- SpeciesTringa melanoleuca (Greater Yellowlegs)
About the Greater Yellowlegs
The greater yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca) is a large shorebird in the family Scolopacidae. It breeds in central Canada and southern Alaska and winters in southern North America, Central America, the West Indies and South America.
The greater yellowlegs was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it in the genus Scolopax and coined the binomial name Scolopax melanoleuca. Gmelin based his description on the "stone snipe" seen feeding in autumn in Chateau Bay, Labrador, that had been described in 1785 by both the English ornithologist John Latham and by the Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant. The greater yellowlegs is now placed in the genus Tringa that was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. The name Tringa is the Neo-Latin word given to the green sandpiper by the Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi in 1603 based on Ancient Greek trungas, a thrush-sized, white-rumped, tail-bobbing wading bird mentioned by Aristotle. The specific epithet melanoleuca combines the Ancient Greek melas meaning... Wikipedia →
Recent sightings of Greater Yellowlegs in Península Valdés
LIVEiNaturalistClosest Relatives at Península Valdés
Lesser Yellowlegs
Tringa flavipes
Baird's Sandpiper
Calidris bairdii
White-rumped Sandpiper
Calidris fuscicollis
Sanderling
Calidris alba
Hudsonian Godwit
Limosa haemastica
Red Knot
Calidris canutus
Wilson's Phalarope
Phalaropus tricolor
Pectoral Sandpiper
Calidris melanotos
Dominican Gull
Larus dominicanus
American Oystercatcher
Haematopus palliatus
Blackish Oystercatcher
Haematopus ater
Snowy Sheathbill
Chionis albus
Global Distribution
Warmer areas are where this animal is recorded most often.