Lesser Yellowlegs
Tringa flavipes
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
- KingdomAnimalia (Animals)
- PhylumChordata (Chordates)
- ClassAves (Birds)
- OrderCharadriiformes (Shorebirds and Allies)
- FamilyScolopacidae (Sandpipers and Allies)
- GenusTringa (Shanks, Tattlers, and Allies)
- SpeciesTringa flavipes (Lesser Yellowlegs)
About the Lesser Yellowlegs
The lesser yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes) is a medium-sized shorebird. It breeds in the boreal forest region of North America, and winters from the south of North America, to the far south of South America. The lesser 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 flavipes. Gmelin based his description on the "yellow shanks" seen in the province of New York in autumn that had been described in 1785 by both the English ornithologist John Latham and the Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant. The lesser 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 flavipes combines the Latin flavus meaning "yellow" with pes meaning "foot". The species is... Wikipedia →
Recent sightings of Lesser Yellowlegs in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks
LIVEiNaturalistClosest Relatives at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks
Greater Yellowlegs
Tringa melanoleuca
Willet
Tringa semipalmata
Solitary Sandpiper
Tringa solitaria
Dunlin
Calidris alpina
Spotted Sandpiper
Actitis macularius
Red-necked Phalarope
Phalaropus lobatus
Long-billed Dowitcher
Limnodromus scolopaceus
Least Sandpiper
Calidris minutilla
Wilson's Snipe
Gallinago delicata
Wilson's Phalarope
Phalaropus tricolor
Western Sandpiper
Calidris mauri
Long-billed Curlew
Numenius americanus
Global Distribution
Warmer areas are where this animal is recorded most often.