BirdBrain Academy

Shorebirds · Scolopacidae

Greater Yellowlegs sounds

Tringa melanoleuca

The Greater Yellowlegs is a large shorebird breeding in Canada and Alaska and wintering from southern North America to South America.

Learn bird sounds freeMore Greater Yellowlegs recordings
Greater Yellowlegs
Photo: JeffreyGammon, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Listen to the Greater Yellowlegs

Each recording below is a short excerpt with its spectrogram, a picture of the sound. Time runs left to right and higher pitches sit higher up. Play each one, then look for the same shape in the next. Different recordings of the same bird help you learn the bird, not one clip.

Call, Song · recording 1 Spectrogram of a Greater Yellowlegs call, song: time runs left to right and pitch rises upward

Recorded by Doug Hynes, Terra Nova (Village), Newfoundland and Labrador, 2010-05-18. XC613398 on xeno-canto, CC BY-SA 4.0. Five-second excerpt.

Call · recording 2 Spectrogram of a Greater Yellowlegs call: time runs left to right and pitch rises upward

Recorded by Niels Krabbe, Cotopaxi: Laguna de Limpiopungo, 2003-11-29. XC251657 on xeno-canto, CC BY-SA 4.0. Five-second excerpt.

Call, Song · recording 3 Spectrogram of a Greater Yellowlegs call, song: time runs left to right and pitch rises upward

Recorded by Doug Hynes, Terra Nova (Village), Newfoundland and Labrador, 2010-05-18. XC613398 on xeno-canto, CC BY-SA 4.0. Five-second excerpt.

What to listen for

What it looks like

Adults have long yellow legs and a long, thin, dark bill with a slight upward curve, longer than the head. They are gray-brown above and white below, with dark brown streaking on the neck and breast and a white rump.

Where to find it

The Greater Yellowlegs breeds in bogs and marshes of the boreal forest region of Canada and Alaska, then migrates to U.S. coasts, the Caribbean, and South America. It forages in shallow water, sometimes stirring the water with its bill.

BirdBrain regions that include this bird

  • Alaska
  • Amazon Basin
  • Andean Region
  • California
  • Caribbean
  • Central America
  • Eastern Canada
  • Eastern South America
  • Florida
  • Great Lakes
  • Mexico
  • Mid-Atlantic
  • New England
  • Northern South America
  • Northwest
  • Polynesia
  • Rocky Mountains
  • Southeast
  • Southern South America
  • Southwest
  • Texas
  • Western Canada
  • Western Europe

Did you know?

  • The young leave the nest within 24 hours of hatching.
  • They sometimes stir shallow water with their bills while foraging.
  • They are very rare vagrants to western Europe.

Learn the Greater Yellowlegs by ear

BirdBrain Academy teaches bird sounds with side-by-side listening and quizzes that use different recordings, so you learn the bird rather than one clip. Start with six free lessons, no signup needed. On your phone, Sound ID can name the birds singing around you.

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Related birds

Species notes are adapted from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and checked for BirdBrain. Recordings come from xeno-canto under the licenses shown with each one. Photo: JeffreyGammon, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Identification guidance is educational; birds vary, so confirm unusual sightings with local experts or eBird.