Medium small. Straight, thick, bill. Dark leading and trailing edge to wings. Sexes alike.
Adults: Breeding: Head, neck, breast, mottle rufous and black and darker on upperaparts. Feathers at base of bill, whitish. Back, scapulars, center of rump, mostly black with broad rufous edges to feathers. Sides of rump, white. Eye, dark brown. Tail, dark brown grading to outer tail feathers which are almost white. Wings, generally dark brown or blackish, with a conspicuous white wingbar formed from broad white tips on greater coverts and base to inner primaries. Lower breast, belly, undertail coverts, underwing, white. Bill, black. Legs, black, with no hind toe. Non-breeding: Upperparts, pale brownish-grey. Forehead, underparts, white. Eyebrow, white. Wings, blackish. Strong white wingbar.
Immatures: Upperparts darker and almost black with buff or white edges to feathers. Breast has fine streaks.
Other Names (World)
Sanderling, Beach-bird, Whitey, Sand Lark
Family
Scolopacidae (Sandpipers, Snipes, Phalaropes)
Regular summer migrant (September - May). Some overwinter; may assume breeding plumage.
Habitat
Broad open beaches with firm sand, where tides ebb and flow, depositing seaweeds, and inlets, tidal mudflats and coastal lagoons. In small to large flocks.
Afghanistan (P), Algeria, American Samoa, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium (NB), Belize, Benin (NB), Bermuda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, British Indian Ocean Territory, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria (NB), Burundi, Cameroon, Canada (B) (P), Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China (mainland), Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Costa Rica, Côte dIvoire, Croatia (Local Name: Hrvatska) (P), Cuba, Cyprus (NB), Czech Republic, Denmark (NB) (P), Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands (Malvinas), Faroe Islands (NB), Fiji, Finland (P), France (NB) (P), French Guiana, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany (NB) (P), Ghana, Greece (NB) (P), Greenland (B), Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam (NB), Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong (China), Hungary, Iceland (P), India, Indonesia, Iran [Islamic Republic of] (P), Iraq (P), Ireland (NB), Israel, Italy (NB), Jamaica (NB), Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liberia, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Macedonia [The Former Yugoslav Republic of] (NB), Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands (NB), Martinique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Micronesia [Federated States of] (NB), Montenegro (NB), Montserrat, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands (NB), Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, North Korea, Northern Mariana Islands (NB), Norway (P), Oman (NB), Pakistan, Palau (NB), Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland (NB) (P), Portugal (NB), Puerto Rico, Qatar, Réunion, Romania (NB) (P), Russia (Asian) (B), Russia (Central Asian) (P), Russia (European) (B) (P), Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia (NB), Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia (Slovak Republic), Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain (NB) (P), Sri Lanka, St Helena, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Pierre and Miquelon (NB) (P), St Vincent and The Grenadines, Sudan, Suriname, Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands (B), Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan (China), Tajikistan, Tanzania [United Republic of], Thailand, Timor-Leste (NB) (P), Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey (NB), Turkmenistan, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu (NB), Uganda, Ukraine (P), United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom (NB) (P), United States Minor Outlying Islands (NB), Uruguay (NB), USA (B), Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Virgin Islands (British) (NB), Virgin Islands (U.S.) (NB), Western Sahara, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Vagrant to Armenia, French Polynesia, French Southern Territories, Gibraltar, Jordan, Laos, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Mongolia, Niger, Sâo Tomé e Principe, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Swaziland, Syrian Arab Republic.
Canadian Arctic, Greenland and Svalbard to Severnaya Zemlya Is, Taymyr Peninsula, Lena Delta and New Siberian Is; small numbers in northern Alaska. Winters on coast from central North to southern South America, and from western and southern Europe and Africa through southern Asia to Australasia and some tropical Pacific islands.
Rarity Status
Currently this species is not classified as a rarity in this country OR information has not been updated.
Population
Estimated population is 620,000 - 700,000 (2010).
Status LC
Sensitive to disturbance on beaches and is susceptible to avian influenza so may be threatened by future outbreaks of the virus. In the Chinese, North Korean and South Korean regions of the Yellow Sea (East Asian flyway route) this species is threatened by the degradation and loss of wetland habitats through environmental pollution, reduced river flows and human disturbance.
Food
Plants, seeds, worms, crustaceans, spiders and insects. Occasionally medusae, fish and larger molluscs and crustaceans taken as carrion. Insects at breeding sites, shrimp, kelp flies on winter shores.
Voice
A liquid 'twwik-twik' and a soft, querulos 'ket ket ket'. A loud 'plitt' uttered in flight. A short frog-like trill in display.
Similar Species
Red Knot (Calidris canutus)
Larger. Non-breeding with non-breeding. Has more streaked underparts. In flight, has a smaller white wing bar.
Red-necked Stint (Calidris ruficollis)
Much smaller. Non-breeding with non-breeding. Has a narrower white wing bar. Less prominent or no black shoulder.
Hooded Plover (Thinornis cucullatus)
Larger. With immatures. Has a white collar. Shorter red bill, tipped black. Legs, red. Lacks a blackish shoulder-patch.
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