Small. Longish bill, broad at base, tapering and usually slightly drooped at tip. Feet partially webbed. Sexes alike.
Adults: Breeding: Crown, ear coverts, bright rufous wash. Scapulars, brown with rufous base, spotted black forming a 'V' on the back. Eyebrow, white. Eye, dark brown. Lores, black. Underparts, white with streaks and arrow-shaped spots across the breast and along the sides and flanks. Tail, center of rump, black. Sides of rump, white. Bill, black, broad at base, and usually slightly drooped at tip. Legs, black. Non-breeding: Side of face, pale. Dark eye accentuated by shadowy darkish are from bill around eye. Eyebrow, white and long. Upperparts, clear grey, with fine dark streaks and pale feather margins. Underparts, white, with a breastband of fine dark streaks.
Immatures: Very bright. Sides of breast washed buff and streaked darker. Mantle, blackish, with rusty edges to feathers. Scapulars, rusty inner and grey outer. Tertials, edged rusty.
Other Names (World)
Western Sandpiper, Web-footed Sandpiper
Family
Scolopacidae (Sandpipers, Snipes, Phalaropes)
Derivation
Cal-id'-ris - Gk, (or scalidris), a kind of bird: mauri - in honour of Ernest Mauri (1791 - 1836), Italian botanist and director of the botanical gardens in Rome
Habitat
Shallow wetlands, mudflats, often in the company of other waders.
Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Canada (P), Cayman Islands, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica (NB), Martinique, Mexico, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Russia (Asian), St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and The Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, United States Minor Outlying Islands, USA (B), Venezuela, Virgin Islands (British) (NB), Virgin Islands (U.S.) (NB).
Vagrant to France, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, St Pierre and Miquelon (P), Sweden, Taiwan (China), United Kingdom.
Population
Estimated population is 3,500,000 (2010).
Western Sandpiper (Calidris mauri) [XC324276]
by Paul Marvin from Poe Road, Salton Sea, Imperial County, California, United States (call)
Western Sandpiper (Calidris mauri) [XC498127]
by Manuel Grosselet from Ahome, Sinaloa, Mexico (alarm call)
Subspecies
No subspecies.
Similar Species
Dunlin (Calidris alpina)
Larger. Non-breeding with non-breeding. Bill, longer and more decurved. Has a faint eyebrow. More brownish was on breast. Legs are longer and feet are not partially webbed.
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