The greater yellow-legs is best known as an Arctic-American species, descending south during migration, and arriving in La Plata at the end of September or early in October, singly or in pairs, and sometimes in small flocks. Without ever being abundant the bird is quite common, and one can seldom approach a pool or marsh on the pampas without seeing one or more individuals wading near the margin, and hearing their powerful alarm cry—a long, clear note repeated three times. These summer visitors leave us in March, and then, oddly enough, others arrive, presumably from the south to winter on the pampas, and remain from April to August. Thus, notwithstanding that the yellow-shanks does not breed on the pampas, we have it with us all the year 'round.
Dr. Alexander Wetmore (1926) saw it in Paraguay as early as September 8 and in Chile as late as April 26. He writes:
After their arrival in September greater yellow-legs were distributed throughout the open pampa wherever shallow ponds offered suitable feeding places. Occasionally 10 or 20 gathered in a flock, especially when northward migration was under way in March and April, but when on their wintering grounds it was usual to find two or three in company, seldom more. They are rather silent during the winter season but when the northward journey begins are as noisy as is their custom in the north. The species is large so that it is attractive to pot hunters and many are killed. I saw a number of crippled birds during the last two months of my stay in Argentina and consider that it is these injured individuals, unable to perform the necessary flight, or without desire to do so from their injuries, that are recorded on the pampas from May to August when all should be in the Northern Hemisphere. Reports of their breeding in Argentina, based on the presence of these laggards in migration are wholly unauthenticated.
I am inclined to think that most of the birds that remain in the South from April to September are one-year-old birds which are not ready to breed.
DISTRIBUTION
Range.—North and South America.
Breeding range.—The breeding range of the greater yellow-legs extends north to Alaska (Bethel); British Columbia (Fort St. James); Mackenzie (Peel River); Alberta (Island Lake); Manitoba (Kalcoala); Labrador (Whale River and Hopedale); and Newfoundland (Gaff Topsail). East to Newfoundland (Gaff Topsail). South to Newfoundland (Gaff Topsail); Quebec (Natashquan River, Anticosti Island, and near Mt. Laurier); probably formerly Illinois (Evanston); and British Columbia (Clinton). West to British Columbia (Clinton, Fort George, and Fort St. James).
They also appear to occur in summer with more or less regularity north to Alaska (St. Paul Island, Bethel, and Nome); Keewatin (near Cape Eskimo); and Franklin (Cumberland Sound); and nonbreeding specimens have at this season been noted south to the Bahama Islands (Great Abaco); Florida (Key West, Sarasota Bay, and Ponce Park); Alabama (Leighton); Texas (Amarillo, Lipscomb, Pecos, and Corpus Christi); and California (Fresno, Santa Barbara, and Nigger Slough).
Winter range.—North rarely to Washington (Dungeness Spit); rarely Arizona (Fort Verde and Bill Williams River); Texas (Tom Green and Concho Counties, Boerne, San Antonio, and Refugio County); Louisiana (Abbeville, Avery Island, and New Orleans); and probably Virginia (Hog Island). East probably to Virginia (Hog Island and Sandy Island); probably North Carolina (Corolla and Pea Island); South Carolina (Ladys Island and Frogmore); Georgia (Blackbeard Island, Darien, and St. Marys); Florida (Amelia Island, Daytona Beach, Miakka, and the Florida Keys); the Bahama Islands (Andros, New Providence, and Inagua Islands); probably Porto Rico; the Lesser Antilles (Antigua, Barbados, and Grenada); French Guiana (Cayenne); Brazil (Para, Cajetuba, Iguape, Pelotas, and Rio Grande do Sul); Uruguay (Lazcano, San Vicente, and Colonia); and Argentina (Buenos Aires, Azul, Carhue, and Bahia Blanca). South to Argentina (Bahia Blanca); Chile (Straits of Magellan, Valparaiso, Paposo, and Antofagasta); Peru (Lake Titicaca, Tinta, and Chorillos); Ecuador (Cuenca, Canar, and Quito); Colombia (Bogota, Medellin, and Cartagena); Costa Rica (San Jose and Puntarenas); Guatemala (Lake Atitlan); Jalisco (Guadalajara); Sinaloa (Escuinapa); Lower California (San Jose del Cabo, La Paz, and San Quintin); California (San Diego, Long Beach, Santa Barbara, and the San Joaquin Valley); and rarely Washington (Dungeness Spit). Greater yellow-legs also have been reported as wintering on the coast of British Columbia (Macoun).