Stilt Sandpiper

IDENTIFICATION: A large shorebird with long greenish legs and a slight droop to the tip of the bill. In fall and winter, it is gray above, lighter below. In breeding plumage it is barred with brown below and has a chestnut patch behind the eye. Length: 20-23 cm.; weight: 50-70 g.

VOICE: The call is a soft, low-pitched "tyurk." Audio (M. Oberle).

HABITAT: Shallow pools in mangroves, salt flats, and estuaries.

HABITS: Feeds in tight flocks with others of its species. It takes advantage of its long legs and wades up to its belly in shallow pools. It alternately submerges and raises its head to probe the mud for worms, insects, molluscs, other invertebrates and seeds. This feeding movement looks like the action of a sewing machine. On its breeding grounds along the Arctic Ocean, the male establishes a territory and hovers 20-60 m. over the territory to advertise his presence and warn off other males. The male makes several shallow nest scrapes in the ground for the female to choose from. The female lays four eggs in a clutch, and both sexes take turns incubating the eggs over a 20-day period. The female incubates at night while the male tends to incubate during mid-day. Within hours of hatching, the young leave the nest and start foraging for food under the watchful eye of the adults. However, the female often abandons the chicks within a few days of hatching, leaving the male to brood the chicks and watch for predators. The young can fly at about 18 days of age and migrate south several weeks after most adults have already departed.

STATUS AND CONSERVATION: A common migrant and winter visitor. Over 1,600 Stilt Sandpipers have been counted on one day in fall migration at Cabo RojoÆs salt flats. However, the species is probably not common worldwide, and the total population may only be 50,000 breeding birds.

RANGE: Breeds on the tundra in a very narrow area of coastal plain in Alaska and far northern Canada. It winters in coastal Louisiana, Texas, parts of Central America, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. But the bulk of the population winters in South America: from western Brazil through Bolivia and Paraguay to eastern Argentina. A regular location to find this species is in pools near Cabo Rojo.

TAXONOMY: CHARADRIIFORMES; SCOLOPACIDAE; Scolopacinae. Formerly in genus Micropalama.

Photo: A. Sßnchez Mu±oz

Photo: G. Beaton


Breeding plumage - Photo: G. Beaton

References

Bent, A.C. 1927. Life histories of North American shore birds, part 1. Smithsonian Instit. U.S. National Museum Bull. 142. (Reprinted by Dover Press, NY, 1962).

Borowik, O. A. and D. A. McLennan. 1999. Phylogenetic patterns of parental care in calidridine sandpipers. Auk 116(4):1107-1117.

Collazo, J.A., B.A. Harrington, J. Grear, and J.A. Colón. 1995. Abundance and distribution of shorebirds at the Cabo Rojo salt flats, Puerto Rico. J. Field Ornithol. 66:424-438.

del Hoyo, J., A. Elliott, and J. Sargatal, eds. 1996. Handbook of Birds of the World, Vol. 3. Hoatzin to Auks. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.

Grear, J. and Collazo, J. A. 1999. Habitat use by migrant shorebirds in a tropical salt flat system. Vida Silvestre Neotropical 7(1):15-22.

Hayman, P., J. Marchant, and T. Prater. 1986. Shorebirds: an identification guide. Houghton Mifflin, Boston.

Klima, J. and J.R. Jehl. 1998. Stilt Sandpiper (Calidris himantopus). No. 341 in The birds of North America (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.

Paulson, D. 1993. Shorebirds of the Pacific Northwest. Univ Washington, Seattle.

Raffaele, H.A. 1989. A guide to the birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Princeton.

Raffaele, H.A. 1989. Una guía a las aves de Puerto Rico y las Islas Vírgenes. Publishing Resources, Inc., Santurce, PR.

Raffaele, H.A., J.W. Wiley, O.H. Garrido, A.R. Keith, and J.I. Raffaele. 1998. Guide to the birds of the West Indies. Princeton.

Saliva, J.E. 1994. Vieques y su fauna: Vieques wildlife manual. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Boquerón, PR.

Wunderle, J.M., Jr., R.B. Waide, and J. Fernández. 1989. Seasonal abundance of shorebirds in the Jobos estuary in southern Puerto Rico. J. Field Ornithol. 60:329-339.

Stilt Sandpiper, Spanish text

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