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.
Unknown to United States Minor Outlying Islands.
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) [XC861157]
by Christian Kerihuel from Observatoire ornithologique (near Hillion), C\u00f4tes-d'Armor, Bretagne, France (flight call)
Dunlin (Calidris alpina) [XC843319]
by Pere Josa from Ida Gerhard, Netherlands (nocturnal flight call)
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.
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.
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