---
title: "Greater Yellowlegs"
description: "Tringa melanoleuca — Birds. The greater yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca) is a large shorebird in the family Scolopacidae."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/animal/greater-yellowlegs
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Greater Yellowlegs

> Tringa melanoleuca — Birds. The greater yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca) is a large shorebird in the family Scolopacidae.

- Scientific name: *Tringa melanoleuca*
- Category: `birds` (Birds)
- Habitats: `freshwater` (Lakes & rivers)
- iNaturalist observations: 75545
- Wikidata: [Q570379](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q570379)
- iNaturalist taxon: [3892](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/3892)

## Names

- en: Greater Yellowlegs
- de: Großer Gelbschenkel
- es: Patamarilla mayor
- fr: Chevalier criard
- nl: Grote geelpootruiter
- pt: Perna-amarela-grande
- pl: Brodziec piegowaty

## Countries with the most observations

US (45614), CA (11403), MX (3840), AR (1495), CL (557), BR (436), CO (325), UY (278), PA (196), NI (182), PE (177), CR (137)

## Summary

The greater yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca) is a large shorebird in the family Scolopacidae. It breeds in central Canada and southern Alaska and winters in southern North America, Central America, the West Indies and South America.

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_yellowlegs

## Photo

![Greater Yellowlegs](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/greater-yellowlegs/medium.jpg)

Photo: Adam Jackson · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/242913276

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/greater-yellowlegs?lang=en` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).