Small. Long wings. Bill, slender, slightly decurved, short legs. Sexes alike.
Adults: Breeding: Upperparts, brown. Breast, lighter brown with light streaks. Scapulars, coverts, a mixture of brown and buff. Tertials, plain. Eyebrow, pale and indistinct. Lores, dark. Bill, slender, black, some are greenish-yellow at the base. Legs, black. Non-breeding: Similar to breeding plumage but pale brown.
Immatures: Similar to non-breeding adult, but pale edges to feathers of back give a scaly appearance. No mantle or scapular lines. Breast, light brown or buff, contrasting with white belly.
Family
Scolopacidae (Sandpipers, Snipes, Phalaropes)
Derivation
Cal-id'-ris - Gk, (or scalidris), a kind of bird: bairdii - Professor Spencer Fullerton Baird (1823 - 1887), mammologist and ornitholoigist, Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, founder of the US National Museum
Habitat
Tidal mudflats, beaches with seaweed, edges of shallow, fresh and salt water wetlands.
Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada (P), Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Falkland Islands (Malvinas), French Guiana, Greenland (B), Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Netherlands Antilles, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Russia (Asian), St Pierre and Miquelon (NB) (P), Suriname, Uruguay (NB), USA (B), Venezuela.
Vagrant to Antarctica, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Barbados, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominica, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Senegal, South Africa, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Spain, St Lucia, St Vincent and The Grenadines, Sweden, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom, Virgin Islands (U.S.).
Unknown to Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, St Kitts and Nevis.
Wrangel I and Chukotskiy Peninsula eastern across northern Alaska and northern Canada to Ellesmere I, northern Baffin I and north-western Greenland. Winters in western and southern South America.
Population
Estimated population is 300,000 (2010).
Baird's Sandpiper (Calidris bairdii) [XC349125]
by Peter Boesman from Quillacollo, Departamento de Cochabamba, Bolivia (call)
Baird's Sandpiper (Calidris bairdii) [XC185622]
by Andrew Spencer from Atigun Pass, Dalton Highway, North Slope Borough, Alaska, United States (call)
Subspecies
Formerly placed in genus Erolia or alternatively in Pisobia.
No subspecies.
Similar Species
Sanderling (Calidris alba)
Larger. Non-breeding with non-breeding. Appears whiter. Breast, white, no streaking. Shoulder-patch and primaries, black. Has a pointed tail. Has larger, white wing bars. Legs, also black but lack a hind toe.
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