Common sandpiper

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Common sandpiper
Adult,
Laem Pak Bia, Thailand

Bird recorded in Scotland

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Scolopacidae
Genus: Actitis
Species:
A. hypoleucos
Binomial name
Actitis hypoleucos
Range
  Breeding
  Non-breeding
  Passage
  Possibly extant (non-breeding)
  Possibly extant (passage)
Synonyms

Tringa hypoleucos Linnaeus, 1758

Actitis hypoleucos

The common sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) is a small

parapatric and replace each other geographically; stray birds of either species may settle down with breeders of the other and hybridize. Hybridization has also been reported between the common sandpiper and the green sandpiper, a basal species of the closely related genus Tringa
.

Taxonomy

The common sandpiper was

monotypic and no subspecies are recognised.[4]

Description

The adult is 18–20 cm (7.1–7.9 in) long with a 32–35 cm (13–14 in) wingspan. It has greyish-brown upperparts, white underparts, short dark-yellowish legs and feet, and a bill with a pale base and dark tip. In winter plumage, they are duller and have more conspicuous barring on the wings, though this is still only visible at close range. Juveniles are more heavily barred above and have buff edges to the wing feathers.[6]

This species is very similar to the slightly larger spotted sandpiper (A. macularia) in non-breeding plumage. But its darker legs and feet and the crisper wing pattern (visible in flight) tend to give it away, and of course they are only rarely found in the same location.[6]

Distribution and migration

The common sandpiper breeds across most of

subtropical Europe and Asia, and migrates to Africa, southern Asia and Australia in winter. The eastern edge of its migration route passes by Palau in Micronesia, where hundreds of birds may gather for a stop-over. They depart the Palau region for their breeding quarters around the last week of April to the first week of May.[6][7]

Behaviour and ecology

The Common Sandpiper is usually encountered alone, occasionally in small groups, although larger flocks are sometimes formed around migration[8] or at breeding season roosts. It seldom joins multispecies flocks.[8] This species has a distinctive stiff-winged flight, low over the water.

Egg
Wintering bird foraging matakakoni-style in Puri

Breeding

It nests on the ground near

freshwater. When threatened, the young may cling to their parent's body to be flown away to safety.[6][9]

Feeding

The common sandpiper forages by sight on the ground or in shallow water, picking up small food items such as insects, crustaceans and other invertebrates; it may even catch insects in flight.

Conservation

It is widespread and common, and therefore classified as a species of

least concern on the IUCN Red List but is a vulnerable species in some states of Australia.[1] The common sandpiper is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.[10]

Relationship to humans

In the Nukumanu language of the Nukumanu Islands (Papua New Guinea), this species is usually called tiritavoi. Another Nukumanu name for it, matakakoni, exists, but this is considered somewhat taboo and not used when children and women are around. The reason for this is that matakakoni means "bird that walks a little, then copulates", in reference to the pumping tail and thrusting head movements the Actitis species characteristically perform during foraging.[6][11]

References

  1. ^
    doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22693264A86678952.en
    . Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  2. ^ Linnaeus, C. (1758). "Tringa hypoleucos". Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. Volume 1 (Tenth ed.). Holmiae (Stockholm): Laurentii Salvii. p. 149.
  3. ^ Illiger, J.K.W. (1811). Prodromus systematis mammalium et avium (in Latin). Berolini [Berlin]: Sumptibus C. Salfeld. p. 262.
  4. ^
    Rasmussen, P., eds. (2021). "Sandpipers, snipes, coursers"
    . IOC World Bird List Version 11.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 22 November 2021.
  5. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4
    .
  6. ^
    ISBN 0-395-60237-8
    .
  7. ^ VanderWerf, E.A.; Wiles, G.J.; Marshall, A.P.; Knecht, M. (2006). "Observations of migrants and other birds in Palau, April–May 2005, including the first Micronesian record of a Richard's Pipit" (PDF). Micronesica. 39 (1): 11–29.
  8. ^
    ISBN 9780643097544
    .
  9. ^ Mann, C.F. (1991). "Sunda Frogmouth Batrachostomus cornutus carrying its young" (PDF). Forktail. 6: 77–78. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-02-20.
  10. ^ "Species". Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA). Retrieved 14 November 2021.
  11. ^ Hadden, D.W. (2004). "Birds of the northern atolls of the North Solomons Province of Papua New Guinea" (PDF). Notornis. 51 (2): 91–102. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-01-14. Retrieved 2016-02-20.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Actitis hypoleucos.
Wikispecies has information related to Actitis hypoleucos.
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