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Common Sandpiper

Common Sandpiper

Actitis hypoleucos

Identify the Common Sandpiper by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.

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The Common Sandpiper is a small, active wader best known for its constant tail-bobbing and low, stiff-winged flight over water. It breeds widely across Europe and Asia near fresh water and spends the non-breeding season in Africa, southern Asia and Australia. It is the Old World counterpart of the American Spotted Sandpiper; together they form the genus Actitis.

Did you know?

  • When threatened, young may cling to a parent's body and be flown to safety.
  • Common and Spotted Sandpipers replace each other geographically and have even been known to hybridise.

Voice

Song
Flight call

About the species

Identification

A small wader, brown above and on the breast and white below, with a white “shoulder spur” between breast and wing. In flight it shows a clear white wingbar and flies low over water with flickering wingbeats. The call is a shrill “tee-tee-tee”, and on the ground it constantly bobs its tail, which makes identification easy.

Family

Scolopacidae

Size

Small (sparrow)

Colours

brown, white, grey, yellow

About the habitat

Open, gently sloping freshwater shores – rivers, streams, lakes, reservoirs and gravel or sandy banks, from outer archipelagos to mountain streams; on passage also estuaries and coasts.

Diet

Mainly insects and other small invertebrates such as beetles, flies, larvae, worms and small crustaceans, picked by sight along the water's edge; occasionally tiny fish or tadpoles.

Behaviour

Usually seen alone or in small groups, picking along the shore while constantly bobbing its rear body and tail. Flies low over water with rapid, shallow, flickering wingbeats and a shrill “tee-tee-tee” call. Pairs defend short stretches of shore and nest on the ground; the male often tends the chicks, and parents perform a broken-wing display to lure predators away.

Sources

Photo: JJ Harrison (https://www.jjharrison.com.au/), CC BY 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Actitis hypoleucos - Laem Pak Bia.jpg

Sound: Jochem verweij, XC901773, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/901773

Sound: Sonothèque ADVL, XC707055, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/707055

Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions, CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_sandpiper

See also