Medium. Short thick legs, medium short straight bill. Wingtips extend beyond tail tip. Sexes alike.
Adults: Breeding: Upperparts, dark grey. Underparts, including flanks and undertail coverts, heavily barred dark grey. Sides of face streaked. Eyebrow, white. Bill, dark grey, with a long nasal groove. Legs, shortish, yellow. Non-breeding: Upperparts, throat and breast, dark grey. Underparts, whitish, with washed grey across breast. Traces of barring on underparts may be visible. Eyebrow, white and shotish, that do not meet on forehead and rarely extend beyond the eye. Legs, greenish-yellow.
Juveniles: Like a non-breeding adult, but with pale fringes to upperpart feathers, which sometimes have alternating light and dark spots.
Other Scientific Names
Tringa incana [Christidis and Boles (2008)], Tringa incana [AOU checklist (1998 + supplements)], Tringa incana [Sibley and Monroe (1990, 1993)], Tringa incana [Turbott (1990)]
Other Names (World)
Wandering Tattler, American Tattler, American Ashen Tringine Sandpiper, American Grey-rumped Sandpiper, American Gray-rumped Sandpiper
Family
Scolopacidae (Sandpipers, Snipes, Phalaropes)
American Samoa, Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Ecuador (NB), El Salvador, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam (NB), Guatemala, Honduras, Kiribati, Marshall Islands (NB), Mexico, Micronesia [Federated States of] (NB), Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Northern Mariana Islands (NB), Palau (NB), Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Pitcairn Islands, Russia (Asian), Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, United States Minor Outlying Islands (NB), USA (B), Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna Islands.
Vagrant to China (mainland), Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan (China).
Extreme north-eastern Siberia and southern Alaska east to Yukon R and north-western British Columbia. Winters in south-western USA and western Mexico, Ecuador and Galapagos Is; also Hawaiian Is, central and southern Pacific Is to eastern New Guinea and north-eastern Australia.
Wandering Tattler (Tringa incana) [XC207428]
by Patrik \u00c5berg from Kailua, Honolulu County, Hawaii, United States (call)
Wandering Tattler (Tringa incana) [XC120771]
by Paul Marvin from Fourth-of-July Creek, Denali National Preserve, Alaska, United States (call)
Breeding Season (Guide)
Does not breed in Australia. Breeds June - July in northern hemisphere.
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Nest
A shallow depression, lined with rootlets and grass, usually on a gravel-bar in a mountain stream.
Eggs (Guide)
Usually 4; green, heavily blotched and spotted with brown; oval to pyriform; about 43 x 32 mm.
Subspecies
Forms superspecies with Grey-tailed Tattler (Tringa brevipes), with which sometimes considered conspecific.
No subspecies.
Similar Species
Grey-tailed Tattler (Tringa brevipes)
Lighter grey upperparts, less heavy bill, with a shorter nasal groove. Larger white eyebrows that nearly meet at the forehead and extends behind the eye. Wingtips do not extend beyond the tail tip when at rest and feeding.
Wood Sandpiper (Tringa glareola)
Smaller. Freckled white above. Has a white rump and finely barred white tail. Underwings, white not greyish. Has a finer bill. Legs are longer.
Compare Images
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9
BirdLife International Species Factsheet