Adults: Breeding: Head, underparts, rufous-brown. Top of head, finely streaked black. Upperparts, black with chestnut buff and white fringes. Eyebrow, buffish and prominent. Eyestrip, blackish. Black V-bars on flanks and undertail coverts. Underwing, white finely barred blackish. Bill, long, slender, slightly widened at tip, dark grey, some olive-yellow at base. Legs, greenish-yellow. Non-breeding: Upperparts, dark grey-brown with pale margins to wing feathers. Top of head, grey. Eyebrow, white, wider before the eye than behind. Eyestripe, broad and dark. Dingy grey-brown wash across upperbreast, contrasting with white underparts. Sparse dark V-bars and spots on flanks and undertail. In flight, conspicuous white wedge on back. Rump, white. Tail, irregularly barred blackish. Shortish-white wingbar on innerwing, parralleled by a longer white trailing edge. Underwing, white, finely barred blackish (looks grey in flight). In flight, toes extend beyond tail tip.
Immatures: Like non-breeding adult. Buff wash to a grey breast. Rufous fringes to dark scapulars and coverts, Rusty fringed grey tertials.
Family
Scolopacidae (Sandpipers, Snipes, Phalaropes)
Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Brunei Darussalam, Canada (P), Cayman Islands, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Guam (NB), Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Northern Mariana Islands (NB), Panama, Puerto Rico, Russia (Asian), Thailand, USA (B).
Vagrant to Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong (China), Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Malaysia, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Spain, St Kitts and Nevis, Sweden, United Kingdom, Vietnam, Virgin Islands (British), Virgin Islands (U.S.), Western Sahara.
Population
Estimated population is 400,000 (2010).
Food
Insects, leeches, molluscs and some vegetable matter.
Voice
A single high, sharp 'keek' or sharp series, varying in length, of repeated chattering 'keek-keek-keek' or 'kyuk-kyuk-kyuk-kyuk' uttered in flight.
Similar Species
Red Knot (Calidris canutus)
Slightly smaller. Breeding with breeding. Bill is shorter. Legs are darker. Lacks the white wedge up the back.
Compare Images
The Reader's Digest Book of British Birds 1980, 3rd Edition, Drive Publications Ltd ISBN 0 340 25308 8
Birds in Colour Campbell, B., 1960, Penguin Books Ltd
The Pocket Guide to Nest and Eggs Fitter, R.S.R., 1954, Collins
RSPB Handbook of British Birds Holden, P., Cleeves, T., 2002, A & C Black ISBN 0 7136 5713 8
Birds of Britain and Europe Sterry, P., et al., 2001, AA Publishing ISBN 0 7495 3068 5
The Popular Handbook of British Birds Hollom, P.A.D., 1973, H.F. & G. Witherby Ltd ISBN 0 85493 002 7