Buff-breasted Sandpiper

Tryngites subruficollisOrder: CHARADRIIFORMES Family: Sandpipers (Scolopacidae)

Codes: Common Name: BBSA Scientific Name: TRYSUB ITIS Taxonomic No.: 176684

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Overview

Buff-breasted Sandpiper: Medium sandpiper, buff wash over entire body except for white vent. Upperparts are black-spotted and streaked, underparts are slightly scaled. Shows white wing linings in flight. Has white eye-ring and black bill. Legs are yellow. Swift direct flight with rapid wing beats.

Range and Habitat

Buff-breasted Sandpiper: Breeds in Alaska and western Canadian Arctic, migrating through the midwest and occurring rarely on the Atlantic or Pacific coasts. Preferred habitats include grasslands and prairies, plowed fields, turf farms, wet rice fields; nests on Arctic tundra.

Topo Map: Sandpiper-like Body

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"pr-r-r-reet"

Interesting Facts

The Buff-breasted Sandpiper is sometimes referred to as a "grasspiper," because of its preference for grassy areas over the coastal mudflats favored by most shorebirds.

During the late 1800s and early 1900s, this was an abundant shorebird, with population estimates ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions. By the 1920s widespread market hunting had decimated their numbers, resulting in near extinction.

They are the only species of North American shorebird that exhibits a lek mating system, in which males defend territories for the sole purpose of performing displays to attract females; females do not receive any resources from males, nor do males aid in parental care in any way.

A group of sandpipers has many collective nouns, including a "bind", "contradiction", "fling", "hill", and "time-step" of sandpipers.

Bird Term Glossary

Author

Gary Owen Dick

Artist

Imran Kahn

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Buff-breasted Sandpiper

● Song: "pr-r-r-reet"

● Foraging & Feeding: Buff-breasted Sandpiper: Diet includes insects, spiders, and seeds. Usually forages on the ground in grassy fields; rarely forages beside water.

● Breeding & nesting: Buff-breasted Sandpiper: Four white, buff, or olive eggs with brown blotches are laid on the ground in a small cup of vegetation lined with grass or moss. Incubation ranges from 19 to 21 days and is carried out by the female; young fly at about 21 days old.

● Similar species: Buff-breasted Sandpiper: Upland Sandpiper and juvenile Ruff have marked underparts and lack white wing linings in flight.

Flight Pattern

Swift flight with rapid wing beats.

Buff-breasted Sandpiper Body Illustration

● Range & Habitat: Buff-breasted Sandpiper: Breeds in Alaska and western Canadian Arctic, migrating through the midwest and occurring rarely on the Atlantic or Pacific coasts. Preferred habitats include grasslands and prairies, plowed fields, turf farms, wet rice fields; nests on Arctic tundra.

^BreedingPromiscuous

^PopulationUncommon to fairly common

^MigrationMigratory

^Weight2.5 Ounces

Sandpiper-like Body

Underparts

Belly, undertail coverts, chest, flanks, and foreneck.

Upperparts

Back, rump, hindneck, wings, and crown.

Vent

Birds do not have two separate cavities for excrement and reproduction like humans do. In birds, there is one single entrance/exit that suits both functions called the vent, cloaca or anus.

4 and 6 letter alpha codes

The four letter common name alpha code is is derived from the first two letters of the common first name and the first two letters of common last name. The six letter species name alpha code is derived from the first three letters of the scientific name (genus) and the first three letters of the scientific name (species). See (1) below for the rules used to create the codes..

Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante (2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42 (Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). The list has been updated by Pyle and DeSante to reflect changes reported by the A.O.U from 2003 through 2006.

Field Guide to Birds of North America