Chevalier guignette

Identification

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.<p>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.

Taxonomie

The common sandpiper was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Tringa hypoleucos. The species is now placed together with the spotted sandpiper in the genus Actitis that was introduced in 1811 by the German zoologist Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger. The genus name Actitis is from Ancient Greek aktites meaning "coast-dweller" from akte meaning "coast". The specific epithet hypoleucos combines the Ancient Greek hupo meaning "beneath" with leukos meaning "white". The species is monotypic and no subspecies are recognised.

Nom scientifique

Actitis hypoleucos

Autorité

(Linnaeus, 1758)

Ordre

Charadriiformes

Famille

Scolopacidés

Genre

Actitis

Répartition et habitat

The common sandpiper breeds across most of temperate and 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.

Aire de reproduction

PAL : widespread, subarctic to temperate inland waterbody margins of Palearctic: British Is. n to Scandinavia s to Iberian Pen., e through temperate Russia to ec Chukotskiy Pen. (ne Russia), s from Turkey, Caucasus, Iran, c Asia to Kashmir (nw Himalayas), n Mongolia, ne China and Japan

Aire hors reproduction

AF, OR, AU, also Middle East : tropical to subtropical inland and coastal waterbodies of Paleotropics: sw Europe, s Macaronesia (nw of w Africa), Africa, Malagasy region, s Middle East, s, se Asia, Indonesian Arch., Philippines, Taiwan, e China, s Japan, New Guinea, Australia, Bismarck Arch. to Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Micronesia

Migration

Complete migrants

Comportement

The Common Sandpiper is usually encountered alone, occasionally in small groups, although larger flocks are sometimes formed around migration or at breeding season roosts. It seldom joins multispecies flocks. This species has a distinctive stiff-winged flight, low over the water.<p>It nests on the ground near freshwater. When threatened, the young may cling to their parent's body to be flown away to safety.<p>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. The common sandpiper is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.

Tendance de la population

declining