Broad-billed Sandpiper
Calidris falcinellus
Small, odd sandpiper with short legs and a long, thin bill, turned down at the tip. Upperparts dark, contrasting with the white underparts and streaky breast. Furtive, with a slow feeding action. When flushed, flight is low and often short. Bold head pattern, evident in all seasons, is the best feature to look for in winter-plumaged birds. Breeds in taiga bogs, usually at coasts and estuaries on migration and in winter.
Identification
Broad-billed sandpipers are small waders, slightly smaller than the dunlin, but with a longer straighter bill, and shorter legs. The breeding adult has patterned dark grey upperparts and white underparts with blackish markings on the breast. It has a pale crown stripe and supercilia.<p>In the boreal winter, they are pale grey above and white below, like a winter dunlin, but retaining the head pattern. Juveniles have backs, similar to young dunlin, but the white flanks and belly and brown-streaked breast are distinctive.<p>Contact call is a dry, whistling “dree-it, dree-it” and a clicking “dik dik”.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Calidris falcinellus
- Authority
- (Pontoppidan, 1763)
- Order
- Charadriiformes
- Family
- Scolopacidae
- Genus
- Calidris
Range and habitat
The broad-billed sandpiper is strongly migratory, spending the non-breeding season from easternmost Africa, through south and south-east Asia to Australasia. It is highly gregarious, and will form flocks with other calidrid waders, particularly dunlins. Despite its European breeding range, this species is rare on passage in western Europe, presumably because of the south-easterly migration route.<p>This bird's breeding habitat is wet taiga bogs in Arctic northern Europe and Siberia. The male performs an aerial display during courtship. They nest in a ground scrape, laying 4 eggs.<p>They forage in soft mud on marshes and the coast, mainly picking up food by sight. They mostly eat insects and other small invertebrates.<p>The broad-billed sandpiper is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.
- Breeding range
- PAL : patchily in low Arctic to subarctic tundra bogs of n Palearctic: Scandinavia to Kanin Pen. (nw Russia); Taimyr Pen. (nw Siberia) and Lena to Kolyma rivers (ne Siberia)
- Non-breeding range
- AF, OR, AU : Paleotropical coasts, e Africa, Red Sea and Persian Gulf through se Asia, Indonesian Arch., s New Guinea and Australia (except sw, sc, Tasmania)
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Turquoise Jay
Cyanolyca turcosa
Noisy and well-named jay of Andean cloud forest. Range is mostly confined to Ecuador, but it does reach adjacent areas of Colombia and Peru. Plumage is bright turquoise-blue with a black mask, black breast band, and whitish forecrown. Very similar to Black-collared Jay (limited range overlap), but brighter blue, especially on crown and throat. Told from Beautiful Jay by the breast band and lack of dark gray on back and breast. Small groups move conspicuously through the forest giving an impressive variety of calls, including screeches, churrs, and mews.
Gray-breasted Seedsnipe
Thinocorus orbignyianus
Stocky, rather small, quail-like bird of the Andes. Favors open rocky slopes, stony plains, and adjacent bogs. Found in pairs or small groups. Male has hooting song given from low mounds or fence posts and during display flight. Flight is strong and fast; flushes with loud bleating chatters. Similar Least Seedsnipe is smaller, favors sandier and grassier habitats, and often occurs in lowlands. Note plain gray breast of male Gray-breasted unlike the black Y pattern present on Least Seedsnipe.
Atlas Wheatear
Oenanthe seebohmi
Small thrush-like bird with distinctive black-and-white tail pattern that is striking in flight. Breeding male has a black face, throat and wing, gray back and crown, and white underparts. Breeding female is duller, with a brownish crown and back, and usually a speckled blackish face and throat. Nonbreeding and immature birds are duller overall, though males retain their distinctive black throat. Breeds in the Atlas Mountains of northwest Africa, in areas of bare rock and short grass. Migrates south into the Sahel, where it spends the non-breeding season in a variety of open habitats such as grasslands and barren rocky plains. Tends to stay on the ground or on low perches. Jumbled-sounding song is quite variable, often including whistles, trills, and mimicry. Similar in appearance to Northern Wheatear, though male Atlas Wheatear is usually separated by its black throat. Separating females during migration and on the wintering grounds is usually difficult. Female Atlas Wheatear has a black “wingpit” and front part of the underwing, but this is hard to see in the field.
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