| Actitis | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Common sandpiper, Actitis hypoleucos | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Charadriiformes |
| Family: | Scolopacidae |
| Genus: | Actitis Illiger, 1811 |
| Type species | |
| Tringa hypoleucos (common sandpiper) Linnaeus, 1758 | |
| Species | |
Actitis is a small genus of waders, comprising just two very similar bird species.
The genus Actitis was introduced in 1811 by the German zoologist Johann Illiger. [1] The genus name is from Ancient Greek aktites, "coast-dweller" from akte, "coast". [2] The type species is the common sandpiper. [3] The genus is sister to the genus Tringa that contains the shanks and the tattlers. [4]
The genus contains two species: [5]
These are both small migratory waders, greyish brown on top and white underneath, with a distinctive stiff-winged flight low over the water. The plumages are very similar, apart from spotted sandpipers' distinctive breeding plumage, and suspected out-of-range vagrants must be carefully observed for identification to species.
Both species have short yellow or yellowish legs and a medium bill. These are not gregarious birds and are seldom seen in large flocks.
They nest on the ground, and their habitat is near fresh water. These birds forage on the ground or in water, picking up food by sight. They may also catch insects in flight. They eat insects, crustaceans and other invertebrates.
Actitis is part of the shank-tattler-phalarope clade and less closely related to the calidrid sandpipers. [6] Based on the degree of DNA sequence divergence and putative shank and phalarope fossils from around the Oligocene/Miocene boundary some 23–22 million years ago, presumably Actitis diverged from its closest relatives in the Late Oligocene; given the much higher diversity of the prehistoric members of the group in Eurasia it is likely that they originated there, possibly being isolated as the remains of the Turgai Sea dried up, which happened just around this time. [7]
The Late Pliocene fossil described as Actitis balcanica [8] appears to be actually from some indeterminate charadriid. [9]
Charadriiformes is a diverse order of small to medium-large birds. It includes about 390 species and has members in all parts of the world. Most charadriiform birds live near water and eat invertebrates or other small animals; however, some are pelagic (seabirds), others frequent deserts, and a few are found in dense forest. Members of this group can also collectively be referred to as shorebirds.
Falcons are birds of prey in the genus Falco, which includes about 40 species. Falcons are widely distributed on all continents of the world except Antarctica, though closely related raptors did occur there in the Eocene.
A phalarope is any of three living species of slender-necked shorebirds in the genus Phalaropus of the bird family Scolopacidae.
The Gruiformes are an order containing a considerable number of living and extinct bird families, with a widespread geographical diversity. Gruiform means "crane-like".
Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wading along shorelines and mudflats in order to forage for food crawling or burrowing in the mud and sand, usually small arthropods such as aquatic insects or crustaceans. The term "wader" is used in Europe, while "shorebird" is used in North America, where "wader" may be used instead to refer to long-legged wading birds such as storks and herons.
Scolopacidae is a large family of shorebirds, or waders, which mainly includes many species known as sandpipers, but also others such as curlews and snipes. The majority of these species eat small invertebrates picked out of the mud or soil. Different lengths of bills enable different species to feed in the same habitat, particularly on the coast, without direct competition for food.
Turnstones are two bird species that comprise the genus Arenaria in the family Scolopacidae. They are closely related to calidrid sandpipers and might be considered members of the tribe Calidriini.
The suborder Lari is the part of the order Charadriiformes that includes the gulls, terns, skuas and skimmers; the rest of the order is made up of the waders and snipes. The auks are now placed into the Lari too, following recent research. Sometimes, the buttonquails are also placed here, but the molecular data and fossil record rather suggests they are a quite basal offshoot along with the snipe-like and aberrant waders.
A stint is one of several very small waders in the paraphyletic "Calidris" assemblage – often separated in Erolia – which in North America are known as peeps. They are scolopacid waders much similar in ecomorphology to their distant relatives, the charadriid plovers.
Tringa is a genus of waders, containing the shanks and tattlers. The genus name Tringa is the Neo-Latin name given to the green sandpiper by the Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi in 1599. They are mainly freshwater birds, often with brightly coloured legs as reflected in the English names of six species, as well as the specific names of two of these and the green sandpiper. They are typically associated with northern hemisphere temperate regions for breeding. Some of this group—notably the green sandpiper—nest in trees, using the old nests of other birds, usually thrushes.
The spotted sandpiper is a small shorebird. Together with its sister species the common sandpiper, it makes up the genus Actitis. They replace each other geographically; stray birds may settle down with breeders of the other species and hybridize.
The common sandpiper is a small Palearctic wader. This bird and its American sister species, the spotted sandpiper, make up the genus Actitis. They are parapatric and replace each other geographically; stray birds of either species may settle down with breeders of the other and hybridize. Hybridization has also been reported between the common sandpiper and the green sandpiper, a basal species of the closely related shank genus Tringa.
The red phalarope or grey phalarope is a small wader. This phalarope breeds in the Arctic regions of North America and Eurasia. It is migratory, and, unusually for a wader, migrates mainly on oceanic routes, wintering at sea on tropical oceans.
The curlew sandpiper is a small wader that breeds on the tundra of Arctic Siberia.
The Terek sandpiper is a small migratory Palearctic wader species and is the only member of the genus Xenus. It is named after the Terek River which flows into the west of the Caspian Sea, as it was first observed around this area.
Vanellus is the genus of waders which provisionally contains all lapwings except red-kneed dotterel, Erythrogonys cinctus. The name "vanellus" is Latin for "little fan", vanellus being the diminutive of vannus. The name is in reference to the sound lapwings' wings make in flight.
The surfbird is a small stocky wader in the family Scolopacidae. It was once considered to be allied to the turnstones, and placed in the monotypic genus Aphriza, but is now placed in the genus Calidris.
The tattlers are the two very similar bird species in the shorebird genus Tringa. They formerly had their own genus, Heteroscelus. The old genus name means "different leg" in Greek, referring to the leg scales that differentiate the tattlers from their close relatives, the shanks.
The jacanas are a group of tropical waders in the family Jacanidae. They are found in the tropical regions around the world. They are noted for their elongated toes and toenails that allow them to spread out their weight while foraging on floating or semi-emergent aquatic vegetation. They are also among the somewhat rare groups of birds in which females are larger, and several species maintain harems of males in the breeding season with males solely responsible for incubating eggs and taking care of the chicks.
Genera of shorebirds and their extinct allies | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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