Baird's Sandpiper

Calidris bairdiiOrder: CHARADRIIFORMES Family: Sandpipers (Scolopacidae)

Codes: Common Name: BASA Scientific Name: CALBAI ITIS Taxonomic No.: 176655

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Overview

Baird's Sandpiper: Medium sandpiper with scaled, gray-brown upperparts, white underparts, and dark-spotted, gray-brown breast. Crown, face, and neck are buff with fine, dark brown streaks. Rump is white with dark central stripe extending through the center of gray-brown tail. Black legs and feet.

Range and Habitat

Baird's Sandpiper: Breeds in the Arctic from eastern Siberia and Alaska to northwestern Greenland. Spends winters in South America, migrating mostly through the interior of North America; uncommon on Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Preferred habitats include freshwater marshes, riverbanks, and lakesides; less frequent on coastal and brackish marshes and adjacent grasslands.

Topo Map: Sandpiper-like Body

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"kreeep"

Interesting Facts

The Baird's Sandpiper was named in honor of Spencer Fullerton Baird (1823-1887), for many years Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.

Research shows that in the fall adults fly along a narrow route through the Great Plains of North America, while young birds migrate over a broad front, and sometimes appear on both Pacific and Atlantic coasts. It is suspected that they may cover up to 4,000 miles nonstop.

Once the young develop their back feathers capable of shedding rain or snow, they no longer requiring brooding and the adults abandon them and begin their southbound migration. Without competition for food from the adults, the young probably mature more quickly, and a month later, begin their first migration.

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

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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.

Baird's Sandpiper

● Song: "kreeep"

● Foraging & Feeding: Baird's Sandpiper: Diet consists primarily of insects, spiders, and small crustaceans; forages by picking food items off relatively dry substrates such as baked mud, sand, or grass.

● Breeding & nesting: Baird's Sandpiper: Four dark brown-spotted, pink to olive eggs are laid in a small hollow on dry tundra. Both parents incubate eggs for 22 days. Young fly in 16 to 20 days.

● Similar species: Baird's Sandpiper: Least Sandpiper is smaller and has yellow-green legs. Semipalmated Sandpiper has grayer breast. White-rumped Sandpiper has white rump.

Flight Pattern

Swift direct flight with rapid wing beats.

● Range & Habitat: Baird's Sandpiper: Breeds in the Arctic from eastern Siberia and Alaska to northwestern Greenland. Spends winters in South America, migrating mostly through the interior of North America; uncommon on Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Preferred habitats include freshwater marshes, riverbanks, and lakesides; less frequent on coastal and brackish marshes and adjacent grasslands.

^BreedingMonogamous

^PopulationFairly common to uncommon

^MigrationMigratory

^Weight1.4 Ounces

Sandpiper-like Body

Underparts

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

Upperparts

Back, rump, hindneck, wings, and crown.

Breast

The upper front part of a bird.

Crown

The crown is the top part of the birds head.

Face

The front part of the head consisting of the bill, eyes, cheeks and chin.

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