Bird name:

Stilt Sandpiper

Calidris himantopus

Order

CHARADRIIFORMES

Family

Sandpipers (Scolopacidae)

Code 4

STSA

Code 6

CALHIM

ITIS

554145

Breeding Location:

Tundra, Meadows, sedge, well-drained

Breeding Type:

Monogamous

Breeding Population:

Egg Color:

Cream, pale green or olive green with brown spots

Number of Eggs:

Incubation Days:

19 - 21

Egg Incubator:

Both sexes

Nest Material:

Grasses.

Migration:

Migratory

RECOMMENDED PRODUCTS

General

Stilt Sandpiper: Medium-sized sandpiper with gray-brown upperparts, white rump, and heavily barred white underparts. Head has a dark cap, white eyebrows, and brown ear patches. Bill is long, black, and curved down at tip. Legs are long and gray-green. Sexes are similar. Winter adult has dull gray upperparts, distinct white eyebrows, and white underparts with faint bars on breast and sides.

Range and Habitat

Stilt Sandpiper: Breeds from northeastern Alaska to northeastern Manitoba and northernmost Ontario. Spends winters in South America and casually north to Florida and southern California. Preferred habitats include sedge meadows interrupted by old beach ridges, eskers, or other elevated areas dominated by dwarf birch, heaths, willows, crowberries, and dryads.

Breeding and Nesting

Stilt Sandpiper: Four cream, pale green or olive eggs spotted with brown are laid in a ground nest made of grass and built in a relatively open area on dry tundra; occasionally nests next to a shrub. Incubation ranges from 19 to 21 days and is carried out by both parents. Young fly at 17 to 18 days.

Foraging and Feeding

Stilt Sandpiper: Feeds on insects, small snails, and small seeds; forages by probing in soft mud on mudflats or while wading in shallow water.

Vocalization

Stilt Sandpiper: Usually silent; call is a low, hoarse "querp."

Similar Species

Stilt Sandpiper: Dowitchers have longer, straighter bills. Yellowlegs have brighter yellow legs and straight bills. Dunlins and Curlew Sandpipers have dark legs and thinner bills; Dunlin also has a dark rump.

Percevia^® Registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The Percevia field guides, database and search protocol patent pending.

The best bird guide and bird watching search engine to identify birds!

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.

Underparts

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

Upperparts

Back, rump, hindneck, wings, and crown.

Breast

The upper front part of a bird.

Cap

The area on top of the head of the bird.

Rump

The area between the uppertail coverts and the back of the bird.

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