Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes)
Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes)
I discovered this solitary Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes) at an irrigation pond in Las Martelas (Los Llanos de Aridane) on August 26, and posted the sighting on eBird the same day.
The bird was still at the site this morning, August 28.
Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes)
The Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes) is an American vagrant which breeds in Alaska and across Canada to southern Hudson Bay and James Bay. After breeding, it migrates south on a broad front through the United States, Central and South America, as far as Chile and Argentina. It is considered a widespread vagrant to western Europe, Africa, the Far East and Australasia. ("Shorebirds of the Northern Hemisphere", Helm, 2009).
Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes) showing barring on tail and white rump patch.
On the Canary Islands 31 records of 33 birds have been accepted by the Spanish Rarities Committee, compared to 129 of 131 in the rest of Spain. ("Avifauna de Canarias", Turquesa, 2025).
Personally, I only have one previous record of this species on La Palma, a solitary juvenile bird found at the saltpans (Las Salinas) in Fuencaliente on Oct 27 2011.
Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes) in flight, showing absence of the white V on rump found in several other Tringa species.
In the above photographs, a number of features can be appreciated which clearly separate the Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes) from the somewhat similar Wood Sandpiper (Tringa glareola).
Flavipes has a much longer bill; in flight, the legs extend well beyond the tip of the tail; the primary feathers are longer; the whitish supercilium is only conspicuous infront of the eye; and the barring on the upper tail is finer and more extensive...among other differences.
The Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes) is still classed as a rarity in Spain by the Spanish Rarities Committee.
