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Temminck's Stint

Temminck's Stint

Calidris temminckii

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Temminck's Stint is a tiny, plain grey-brown sandpiper of freshwater margins and tundra wetlands, often overlooked thanks to its subdued plumage, yellowish legs and white outer tail feathers. It breeds in the bogs, marshes and river shores of the Arctic taiga and tundra from northern Europe to far eastern Russia and winters at freshwater sites in tropical Africa, the Indian subcontinent and South-East Asia.

Did you know?

  • Its name honours the Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck.
  • Males and females often incubate separate clutches in the same season.

Voice

Song

About the species

Identification

A small sandpiper, greyish above and on the breast and white on the belly. The bill is about as long as the head and slightly drooping; the outer tail feathers are white and the legs yellowish. The call is a rippling trill, and it often keeps close to vegetation. Compared with Little Stint it looks duller and more uniform, with pale legs and a white-sided tail.

Family

Scolopacidae

Size

Small (sparrow)

Colours

grey, white, brown, yellow

About the habitat

Breeds on wet tundra, mires, river shores and coastal meadows with sparse vegetation; on migration muddy margins of lakes, ponds, marshes and sewage lagoons, generally avoiding saline coasts.

Diet

Small insects and their larvae and pupae, as well as tiny crustaceans and worms, picked from wet mud and shallow freshwater edges.

Behaviour

Feeds by creeping steadily and mouse-like along pool margins, picking quickly at prey; often among vegetation. When flushed it towers up with a ringing, trilled call. Less gregarious than many sandpipers. In the breeding season males sing a trilling song in hovering display flight. Males and females often raise separate broods: the female lays one clutch for the male to incubate and then incubates a second herself.

Sources

Photo: Dûrzan, CC0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Calidris temminckii 2025.jpg

Sound: Vladimir Yu. Arkhipov, Arkhivov, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Calidris_temminckii_song.ogg

Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions, CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temminck%27s_stint

See also