The Long and Short-billed dowitchers currently are not under any state or federal threatened or endangered species protection, and are not known to be in decline.
Dowitchers are medium sized shorebirds which closely resemble the common snipe.
The major difference in appearance is the dowitchers lack the crown stripes of the snipe. They have rufous and brown mottled plumage during the breeding season and a pale gray and white plumage during the winter. In flight, both Long and Short-billed dowitchers show a rather plump outline with fairly narrow wings that have a fine pale trailing edge to the secondaries. Both species have a white rump patch that shows as a narrow slit between the tertials. During their southward migration the Long-billed dowitchers will stop along the way and under go a complete wing and body molt.