Sewing-machine Feeding

One way to distinguish the long-billed dowitcher (Limnodromus scolopaceus) from other shorebirds is by how they feed – like a sewing machine! The shorebird quickly probes into the refuge’s mud flats with its long bill, sometimes to the point of sticking their head in the mud. Like many other migratory birds, they are dependent on the habitat at Las Vegas National Wildlife Refuge during their long migration that extends as far north as Alaska and as far south as the Yucatan Peninsula.