Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Greater Yellowlegs

Tringa melanoleuca

Description:

The Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca) is a large North American shorebird, similar in appearance to the smaller Lesser Yellowlegs. Its closest relative, however, is the Greenshank, which together with the Spotted Redshank form a close-knit group. Among them, these three species show all the basic leg and foot colors found in the shanks, demonstrating that this character is paraphyletic (Pereira & Baker, 2005). They are also the largest shanks apart from the Willet, which is altogether more robustly built. The Greater Yellowlegs and the Greenshank share a coarse, dark, and fairly crisp breast pattern as well as much black on the shoulders and back in breeding plumage.

Species ID Suggestions



Sign in to suggest organism ID

No Comments

James McNair
Spotted by
James McNair

Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA

Spotted on Mar 3, 2014
Submitted on Mar 3, 2014

Related Spottings

Wandering Tattler Willet Redshank Willet

Nearby Spottings

Great White Egret Loggerhead Shrike Eastern Meadowlark Ring-Billed Gull
Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team