Long-billed Dowitcher

The long-billed dowitcher is a medium-sized shorebird with a relatively long bill, 62–72 mm, males having bills near the lower end of the range. It is about 29 cm long with a wingspan of 47–49 cm and weighs 88–130 g. In breeding plumage adults have a rufous head and underparts with a darker mottled back and a large white upper rump seen only in flight (Wikipedia, general species account).

It feeds in various freshwater habitats with its bill underwater in a sewing-machine motion, and males chase females in flight in a mating display. The best field mark separating it from the short-billed dowitcher is the flight call, especially in winter when the plumages can be nearly identical, and the two differ ecologically in habitat preference and breeding location. It lays an average of four eggs. The cached account is about North American birds and gives nothing specific to India. SoIB 2023 lists it as a winter migrant of wetland that eats invertebrates, without a priority category (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).