Medium large. Small head, dove-like with large eyes, long thin neck, long legs, long tail, long wings. Bill, slightly decurved. Looks like a sandpiper but behaves like a plover. Sexes alike.
Adults: Upperparts, pale brown, mottled darker, paler around the eye, throat and underparts. Eye, large, dark brown. Eyering, white. Crown, dark. Tail, longish and pointed, barred black at edges. Wing coverts, brownish with narrow white trailing edges, contrasting with black wingtips. Underwing, boldly barred black and white. Rump, center of tail, dark in center, pale at sides. Bill, dark at the tip, yellow toward the base. Legs, dull yellow.
Other Names (World)
Upland Sandpiper, Upland Plover, Bartram's Sandpiper
Family
Scolopacidae (Sandpipers, Snipes, Phalaropes)
Argentina, Aruba, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada (B), Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay (NB), USA (B), Venezuela.
Vagrant to Antarctica, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Cayman Islands, Croatia (Local Name: Hrvatska), Cuba, Denmark, Dominica, Falkland Islands (Malvinas), France, Gabon, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Malta, Mauritania, Montserrat, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, St Helena, St Pierre and Miquelon (P), United Kingdom, Virgin Islands (British), Virgin Islands (U.S.).
Unknown to Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Haiti, Martinique, Puerto Rico, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and The Grenadines, Turks and Caicos Islands.
Population
Estimated population is 350,000 (2010).
Upland Sandpiper (Bartramia longicauda) [XC815122]
by Stanislas Wroza from Masonville Township (near Maplewood), Delta County, Michigan, United States (alarm call, song, four songs and two chuckles)
(Bartramia longicauda) [XC56358]
by Ian Cruickshank from Entre La Romelia y El Planchon (PNN Munchique), Charguayaco, Vereda La Romelia, Mpio El Tambo, Cauca, Colombia (call)
Subspecies
No subspecies.
Similar Species
Pectoral Sandpiper (Calidris melanotos)
Much smaller. Non-breeding with non-breeding. Eyebrow, white and long. Neck, legs, shorter. Underwing is white. Sides of rump, white.
Ruff (Calidris pugnax)
Smaller. Non-breeding with non-breeding. Bill, longer, less decurved, yellowish only at base. Head, neck, plainer, buff grey. In flight, pale wing bar is visible, and underwing is wholly white, unbarred, large white ovals are visible on sides of rump, and legs extend beyond the tail tip.
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