Short-billed Dowitcher Limnodromus griseus killed by a Western Gull Larus occidentalis in western Washington, USA
Info
Pages
159 – 160
Published
1 August 17
Authors
Joseph B. Buchanan
DOI
10.18194/ws.00067
Correspondence
Joseph Buchanan
Joseph.Buchanan@dfw.wa.gov
Cascadia Research Collective, 218 ½ West Fourth Avenue, Waterstreet Building, Suite 201, Olympia, Washington
98501, USA
Files
Public Files
Shorebirds are at risk of predation by raptors, particularly during the non-breeding season (Page & Whitacre 1975, van den Hout et al. 2008). Short-billed Dowitchers Limnodromus griseus have few other significant predators during the non-breeding period (Jehl et al. 2001), and observations of predation by taxa other than raptors are unusual, although gulls have been recorded depredating a range of shorebirds (e.g. Weiser & Powell 2011).
In this paper I describe an instance of a Short-billed Dowitcher being killed by a Western Gull Larus occidentalis in coastal Washington.