Medium small. Long bill decurved at tip. Sexes similar.
Adults: Breeding: Crown, back, scapulars, dark brown broadly edged in rufous and tipped white. Eyebrow, whitish. Eye, dark brown. Face, neck, breast, pale greyish with blackish streaks. Lower back, rump, uppertail coverts, wing coverts, flight feathers, greyish-brown, greater and primary coverts tipped white forming a white wing bar. Sides of rump, flanks, lower belly, undertail coverts, underwing, white. Central tail feathers, dark greyish-brown becoming lighter toward outer feathers. Center of belly has a large black patch. Bill, black. Legs, black. Non-breeding: Crown, back, scapulars, uniform brownish-grey. Eyebrow, broad white, stopping above the eye. Rump, tail, wings, greyish-brown. Underparts, white except for pale greyish-brown finely streaked breast band.
Immatures: Upperparts browner and darker. Breast band buffier with broader streaks covering lower neck and breast. Flanks have blackish spots.
Other Names (World)
Dunlin, Red-backed Sandpiper, Blackcrop, Plovers' Page
Family
Scolopacidae (Sandpipers, Snipes, Phalaropes)
Afghanistan (P), Albania (NB), Algeria, Armenia, Austria (P), Azerbaijan (NB), Bahrain (NB), Bangladesh, Belarus (B) (P), Belgium (B) (NB), Bulgaria (NB), Burkina Faso, Canada (B) (NB) (P), Cape Verde, China (mainland), Côte dIvoire, Croatia (Local Name: Hrvatska) (NB) (P), Cyprus (NB), Czech Republic (NB), Denmark (B) (NB) (P), Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Estonia (B), Ethiopia, Faroe Islands (B) (NB), Finland (B) (P), France (NB) (P), Gambia, Georgia, Germany (B) (NB) (P), Greece (NB) (P), Greenland (B), Guam (NB), Guinea, Guinea-bissau, Hong Kong (China) (NB), Hungary, Iceland (B) (P), India, Iran [Islamic Republic of] (NB) (P), Iraq (NB) (P), Ireland (B) (NB), Israel, Italy (NB) (P), Japan, Jordan (NB) (P), Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia (B), Lebanon, Liberia, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Lithuania (B), Luxembourg, Macedonia [The Former Yugoslav Republic of] (NB), Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mexico, Micronesia [Federated States of] (NB), Moldova [Republic of], Montenegro (NB), Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands (B) (NB), North Korea, Northern Mariana Islands (NB), Norway (B) (P), Oman (NB), Pakistan, Palau (NB), Poland (B) (NB) (P), Portugal (NB), Qatar, Romania (NB) (P), Russia (Asian) (B), Russia (Central Asian) (B) (P), Russia (European) (B) (NB) (P), Saudi Arabia (NB) (P), Senegal, Serbia (NB), Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia (Slovak Republic), Slovenia (NB) (P), Somalia, South Korea, Spain (NB) (P), Sri Lanka, St Pierre and Miquelon (NB) (P), Sudan, Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands (B), Sweden (B) (P), Switzerland (NB), Syrian Arab Republic, Taiwan (China), Tajikistan, Thailand, Tunisia (NB), Turkey (NB), Turkmenistan, Ukraine (NB) (P), United Arab Emirates (NB), United Kingdom (B) (NB) (P), USA (B), Uzbekistan, Vietnam (NB), Yemen.
Vagrant to Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei Darussalam, Burundi, Cameroon, Cayman Islands, Chad, Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, French Guiana, Ghana, Gibraltar, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Jamaica, Kenya, Laos, Liechtenstein, Malaysia, Martinique, Mongolia, Montserrat, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and The Grenadines, Togo, Turks and Caicos Islands, Uganda, Venezuela, Virgin Islands (British), Virgin Islands (U.S.), Western Sahara.
Population
Estimated population is 4,600,000 - 6,500,000 (2010).
Status LC
Habitat loss both in its breeding grounds and migration ares and susceptibility to avian diseases are the main threats.
For more information see BirdLife International Species Factsheet.
Habits
Active both during the day and night.
Food
Insects on tundra. Small, worms, crustaceans and molluscs.
Voice
A 'treep', a 'teerp' or a nasal, rasping, 'cheezp'. A harsh, rolling 'krreee' uttered in flight and a longer call in display over the nesting site.
Dunlin (Calidris alpina) [XC884143]
by id from Rochefort, Namur, Wallonie, Belgium (nocturnal flight call)
Dunlin (Calidris alpina) [XC845407]
by Jacobo Ramil Millarengo from Baix Ebre (near L'Ampolla), Tarragona, Catalunya, Spain (call)
Breeding Season (Guide)
Does not breed in Australia. Breeds in far northern hemisphere.
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Nest
A shallow scrape in the ground, with some lining, concealed in vegetation. In dispersed or loose colonies.
Eggs (Guide)
4; slightly glossy, buff to olive-brown, sometimes blue-green, sprinkled with dark brown spots and blotches; pyriform. Incubation: 21 - 22 days.
Subspecies
Suggested subspecies centralis included in alpina; subspecies hudsonia sometimes included in pacifica, and pacifica sometimes included in either sakhalina or arcticola.
Subspecies occuring in Australia not known but probably sakhalina and pacifica.
schinzii (Brehm, CL & Schilling, 1822) - South-eastern Greenland and Iceland through Faeroes and British Is to Baltic and southern Scandinavia. Winters in southern Europe and north-western Africa.
alpina (Linnaeus, 1758) - Northern Scandinavia and northern Russia east to R Kolyma. Winters from western Europe and Mediterranean to north-western India, and sparsely to Bangladesh.
sakhalina (Vieillot, 1816) - R Kolyma to Chukotskiy Peninsula and Anadyrland. Winters in eastern China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan, and perhaps in small numbers in western North America.
kistchinski Tomkovich, 1986 - Northern Sea of Okhotsk and Koryak Mts through Kamchatka to Kuril Is; wintering grounds unknown.
arcticola (Todd, 1953) - North-western Alaska north of Seward Peninsula, and north-western Canada. Winters in eastern China, Korea and Japan.
pacifica (Coues, 1861) - South-western Alaska south of Seward Peninsula. Winters in western USA and western Mexico.
hudsonia (Todd, 1953) - Central Canada. Winters in south-eastern USA and probably eastern Mexico.
centralis (Buturlin, 1932) - North-central to north-eastern Siberia.
Similar Species
Curlew Sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea)
Slightly larger. Non-breeding with non-breeding. Longer legs and neck. Eyebrow, long and white. Lores, blackish. Breast only lightly streaked on the sides. Rump is whiter. Bill, black with a continuous decurve, as opposed to only the tip.
Broad-billed Sandpiper (Calidris falcinellus)
Slightly smaller. Non-breeding with non-breeding. Darker underparts. Eyebrow, snipe-like whitish, splitting near eye. Breast, grey with fine dark streaks, not cut off fairly sharply from whitish underparts. Legs, dark grey. Bill, black, also decurved but broad at base.
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