Common greenshank

Common greenshank
Summer plumage, Standlake, Oxfordshire
Winter plumage, Bahrain
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Scolopacidae
Genus: Tringa
Species:
T. nebularia
Binomial name
Tringa nebularia
(Gunnerus, 1767)
Range of T. nebularia
  Breeding
  Non-breeding
  Passage
  Vagrant (seasonality uncertain)
Synonyms
  • Scolopax glottis Linnaeus, 1758
  • Tringa littorea Linnaeus, 1758

The common greenshank (Tringa nebularia) is a wader in the large family Scolopacidae, the typical waders. The genus name Tringa is the Neo-Latin name given to the green sandpiper by Aldrovandus in 1599 based on Ancient Greek trungas, a thrush-sized, white-rumped, tail-bobbing wading bird mentioned by Aristotle. The specific nebularia is from Latin nebula "mist". Like the Norwegian Skoddefoll, this refers to the greenshank's damp marshy habitat.