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Australian Wildlife

  Common Greenshank (Tringa nebularia)





Common Greenshank | Tringa nebularia photo
Common Greenshank in Non-breeding plumage (Tringa nebularia) at Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India.

Image by J.M.Garg - Some rights reserved.    (view image details)

Common Greenshank | Tringa nebularia photo
Juvenile Greenshank (Tringa nebularia) Cairns Esplanade, North Queensland, Australia

Image by www.aviceda.org - Some rights reserved.    (view image details)







COMMON GREENSHANK FACTS

Description
Heavily-built wader with long, slightly upturned bill. Head and neck white, streaked with brown, grey and black (darker in breeding birds). Underside white; dark markings on upper breast and sides. Legs pale grey-green. In flight, upperwing dark and underwing white with faint brown barring. Larger than the similar Marsh Sandpiper. Length up to 35 cm; wingspan to 65 cm.

Found near edges of wetlands. Associates with other waders, especially the Marsh Sandpiper. Active, wary, excitable and noisy. Feeds on molluscs, crustaceans, insects and occasionally small fish and frogs. Feeds by picking, probing, sweeping and lunging; movements are often erratic, changing direction and dashing after small fish.

Author credit: Alexis Tindall / South Australian Museum

Habitat
Inland wetlands and sheltered coastal areas, including mudflats, saltmarshes, river estuaries, deltas and lagoons.

Food
Carnivore

Range
Around Australia

distribution map showing range of Tringa nebularia in Australia

Credits:
Map is from Atlas of Living Australia website at https://biocache.ala.org.au licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.


Species Description is from Museums Field Guide, Atlas of Living Australia at website at https://lists.ala.org.au Licensed under Creative Commons Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.




Classification
Class:Aves
Order:Charadriiformes
Family:Scolopacidae
Genus:Tringa
Species:nebularia
Common Name:Common Greenshank

Relatives in same Genus
  Spotted Redshank (T. erythropus)
  Lesser Yellowlegs (T. flavipes)
  Wood Sandpiper (T. glareola)
  Marsh Sandpiper (T. stagnatilis)
  Common Redshank (T. totanus)