Grey-tailed Tattler vs Wandering Tattler

Grey-tailed Tattler

Tringa brevipes

Medium127 gWetland

The grey-tailed tattler is closely related to its North American counterpart, the wandering tattler (T. incana) and is difficult to distinguish from that species. Both tattlers are unique among the species of Tringa for having unpatterned, greyish wings and back, and a scaly breast pattern extending more or less onto the belly in breeding plumage, in which both also have a rather prominent supercilium. These birds resemble common redshanks in shape and size. The upper parts, underwings, face and neck are grey, and the belly is white.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: John Robert McPherson · CC0

Wandering Tattler

Tringa incana

Medium108 gWetland

The wandering tattler 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 incana. Gmelin based his description on the "ash-coloured snipe" that had been described in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his book A General Synopsis of Birds. Latham's specimen had been supplied by the naturalist Joseph Banks.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: TRinaud · CC BY 4.0

Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Grey-tailed Tattler and Wandering Tattler.