Smallish. Long, broadened bill decurved at tip, short legs, snipe-like plumage. Sexes alike.
Adults: Breeding: Crown, back, scapulars, tertials, dark brown, all crown feathers edged with golden buff, back and scapulars edges form parrallel lines down back. Eyebrow, white divided by dark brown line. Eyestrip, dark brown from lores continuing to more rufous brown ear. Eye, dark brown. Wings, brown with narrow wing bar formed by white tips to greater coverts. Central tail feathers, dark brown, grading to pale brownish-grey outer feathers. Sides of face, neck, breast band, flanks, pale brownish-grey, heavily streaked with dark browm. Throat, white, lightly streaked with dark brown. Sides of rump, belly, undertail coverts, underwing, white. Bill, black. Legs, dark grey. Non-breeding: Upperparts, greyish-brown, feathers with dark brown shafts or centers. Sides of face, neck, breast, flanks, greyer with fine dark streaks.
Immatures: Upperparts similar to adult but paler edges to feather. Neck, breast, pale brownish-buff with faint dark streaks.
Other Names (World)
Broad-billed Sandpiper, Murky Sandpiper
Family
Scolopacidae (Sandpipers, Snipes, Phalaropes)
Population
Estimated population is 71,000 - 160,000 (2010).
Status LC
Migrational staging areas around the coast of the Yellow Sea are being lost through land reclamation, and degraded as a result of declining river flows (from water abstraction), increased pollution, unsustainable harvesting of benthic fauna and a reduction in the amount of sediment being carried into the area by the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers.
Broad-billed Sandpiper (Calidris falcinellus) [XC732241]
by Johan Willner from Gransj\u00f6n, Vilhelmina Municipality, V\u00e4sterbotten County, Sweden (song)
Broad-billed Sandpiper (Calidris falcinellus) [XC396655]
by Sunny from Allaikhovsky District, Sakha Republic, Russian Federation (call)
Breeding Season (Guide)
Does not breed in Australia. Breeds June - July in bogs and peats, in Arctic Eurasia.
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Nest
A hollow scooped in the ground, lined with dry grass, usually on a low sedge covered hummock or a mountain marsh or boggy ground.
Eggs (Guide)
3 - 4; smooth, pale buff, heavily blotched with red-browns; oval to pyriform; about 32 x 23 mm. Incubation: about 21 days; by both sexes.
Subspecies
One sibrica, brighter plumaged, in Australia.
The following 2 subspecies are recognised:
falcinellus (Pontoppidan, 1763) - Scandinavia and north-western Russia. Winters from eastern and southern Africa through Arabia to western and southern India and Sri Lanka.
sibirica Dresser, 1876 - Taymyr, and R Lena east to R Kolyma. Winters from north-eastern India through south-eastern Asia, Philippines and Indonesia to Australia.
Similar Species
Curlew Sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea)
Slightly larger. Non-breeding with non-breeding. Eyebrow, long and white. Lores, blackish. Breast only lightly streaked on the sides. Underparts slightly darker. Bill also decurved but does not have a sharply down-curved tip. Legs, black and longer.
Dunlin (Calidris alpina)
Slightly larger. Non-breeding with non-breeding. Eyebrow, broad, white stopping at eye. Breast, grey, finely streaked darker, cut off fairly sharply from whitish underparts. Legs, black. Bill, heavier, black, also decurved but only at the tip, and also not broad at base. Rump is darker.
Dunlin (Calidris alpina) is a rare vagrant to Australia. Currently only known from Queensland (Cairns, Cape Bowling Green).
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