Medium small. Long, robust, tapering bill, slightly drooped and swollen at tip. Sexes alike.
Adults: Breeding: Upperparts, dark brown, richly patterned with fine, pale feather margins. Crown, chestnut. Face, neck, breast, underparts, undertail, white but heavily barred dark brown. Eyebrow, white and long. Ear-patch, distinct, rusty. Rump, white, barred at the edges. Bill, black. Legs, yellow-green. Non-breeding: Upperparts, deep grey-brown, pattern with fine, pale feather margins. Eyebrow, white, above a slim dark eyeline. Neck, underparts, white with short grey streaks throughout. Underwing, white.
Immatures: Like non-breeding but buffer, with chestnut fringes on scapulars. Underparts, buff-grey to whitish, mottled darker on sides of breast. Legs, grey-yellow. In flight, thin white wing bar, with feet trailing beyond tail. Dark upperparts cleanly cut-off from white rump.
Other Scientific Names
Micropalama himantopus [BirdLife International (2004)]
Family
Scolopacidae (Sandpipers, Snipes, Phalaropes)
Derivation
Micropalama - Gk, micros, small; Gk, palamus, the palm of the hand, referring to the small palm-shaped lobes between the toes: hi-mant'-o-pus - Gk, himantopous, water-bird
Habitat
Shallow waters of estuaries, tidal mudflats, swamp, wetlands, saltfields and sewerage ponds. Usually in the company of Sharp-tailed Sandpiper (Calidris acuminata) or Curlew Sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea) or other waders.
Stilt Sandpiper (Calidris himantopus) [XC778465]
by Doug Hynes from Brigantine National Wildlife Refuge, NJ, United States (call)
Stilt Sandpiper (Calidris himantopus) [XC76189]
by Daniel Lane from Churchill, MB, Canada (song)
Subspecies
No subspecies.
Similar Species
Curlew Sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea)
Similar size. Non-breeding with non-breeding. Upperparts, lighter grey-brown. Underparts, white with no streaking. Bill, shorter, black, not as robust, but decurved without a swollen tip. Legs, shorter, black.
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