Long-billed Dowitcher
The Long-billed Dowitcher is extremely difficult to distinguish from its close relative, the Short-billed Dowitcher. These two similar-looking species are best identified by their distinct calls: Short-billed Dowitchers give a lower-pitched toodu or tututu call, and Long-billed Dowitchers give a loud, high-pitched keek alarm call that is occa- sionally given in series. Long-bills generally prefer freshwater habitats, including flooded fields, small ponds, reservoir edges and sewage lagoons, while Short-bills pre- fer brackish marshes and tidal mudflats. Reifel Island, Burnaby Lake, Blackie Spit and the sewage lagoons on Iona Island are good places to look for foraging flocks of Long-billed Dowitchers, particularly in October. They probe shallow water and mudflats with an up-down "stitching" motion as they search for invertebrates such as insects, mollusks and freshwater shrimp.