Tringa flavipes
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~60% in a week ~90%
The lesser yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes) is a medium-sized shorebird. It breeds in the boreal forest region of North America, and winters from the south of North America, to the far south of South America. The lesser yellowlegs 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 flavipes. Gmelin based his description on the "yellow shanks" seen in the province of New York in autumn that had been described in 1785 by both the English ornithologist John Latham and the Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant. The lesser yellowlegs is now placed in the genus Tringa that was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. The name Tringa is the Neo-Latin word given to the green sandpiper by the Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi in 1603 based on Ancient Greek trungas, a thrush-sized, white-rumped, tail-bobbing wading bird mentioned by Aristotle. The specific epithet flavipes combines the Latin flavus meaning "yellow" with pes meaning "foot". The species is... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anchorage | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | São Luís | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Cochabamba | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | |
| 4 | Campinas | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Santa Cruz de la Sierra | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | |
| 6 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 7 | León | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 8 | Lima | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 9 | Rosario | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 10 | Fortaleza | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Natura Artis Magistra | 🇳🇱 Netherlands | |
| 2 | Montreal Biodome | 🇨🇦 Canada |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Lesser Yellowlegs sighting in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on a given day, based on 2,908 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 51st most-seen of the 279 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 60%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March
In that month about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Lesser Yellowlegs in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on a given day, against under 5% in June–July and October, the lowest months. That is one of Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge's driest months, with about 50 mm of rain against 210 mm in September.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Lesser Yellowlegs sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 55 parks where we can rate Lesser Yellowlegs sightings, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge has the highest daily chance: about 30%. Next come Wood Buffalo National Park (Canada, about 30%) and Celestún Biosphere Reserve (Mexico, about 20%).
Same genus: Tringa
The closest relatives of the Lesser Yellowlegs that you can see in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (genus Tringa, Shanks, Tattlers, and Allies) are Willet (about 30%) and Greater Yellowlegs (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Lesser Yellowlegs is recorded against all the birds logged in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (2,908 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
