Common Sandpiper

Actitis hypoleucosOrder: CHARADRIIFORMES Family: Sandpipers (Scolopacidae)

Codes: Common Name: COSA Scientific Name: ACTHYP ITIS Taxonomic No.: 176613

Common Sandpiper: The adult Common Sandpiper has brown upperparts, white underparts and a finely streaked upper breast.

Related Birds

Spotted Sandpiper

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Overview

Common Sandpiper: Eurasian counterpart to the Spotted Sandpiper; has dusky gray upperparts, heavily streaked breast, and sparkling white underparts. Best distinguished by its habit of standing in a semi-crouch and bobbing back and forth. Flies low over water with stiff shallow wing beats and glides.

Range and Habitat

Common Sandpiper: In nonbreeding season wanders widely along fresh and salt water edges throughout Europe, Africa, Middle East, South Asia, and Australia. Very rarely found on Aleutian Islands in Alaska.

Topo Map: Sandpiper-like Body

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"swee wee wee"

Interesting Facts

The Common Sandpiper is notable for a nervous mannerism of wagging its tail.

In the Nukumanu language of the Nukumanu Islands, Papua New Guinea, a name for this species is matakakoni, but this is considered somewhat taboo; the reason for this is that matakakoni means "bird that walks a little, then copulates" in reference to the pumping tail and thrusting head movements it uses during foraging.

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

Bird Term Glossary

Author

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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.

Common Sandpiper

● Song: "swee wee wee"

● Foraging & Feeding: Common Sandpiper: Frequents rocky shorelines, bobbing as it walks along the water edge picking small invertebrates from the surface of rocks and mud.

● Breeding & nesting: Common Sandpiper: Nests along a wide variety of freshwater lakes and rivers across Europe and Asia. Lays four pink gray eggs with fine brown red speckles. Both parents incubate 21 to 22 days, and both parents look over young as they feed themselves.

● Similar species: Common Sandpiper: Spotted Sandpiper is nearly identical but has shorter tail, during the breeding season develops heavily spotted breast and bright orange legs and bill.

Flight Pattern

Highly distinctive flight with quick shallow wingbeats alternating with stiff glides on cupped wings.

● Range & Habitat: Common Sandpiper: In nonbreeding season wanders widely along fresh and salt water edges throughout Europe, Africa, Middle East, South Asia, and Australia. Very rarely found on Aleutian Islands in Alaska.

^BreedingMonogamous, Solitary nester

^Population

^MigrationMigratory

^Weight1.8 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.

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