Stilt sandpiper

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Stilt sandpiper
Calidris himantopus.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Scolopacidae
Genus: Calidris
Species:
C. himantopus
Binomial name
Calidris himantopus
(Bonaparte, 1826)
Calidris himantopus map.svg
Synonyms

Micropalama himantopus

The stilt sandpiper (Calidris himantopus) is a small shorebird. The scientific name is from Ancient Greek. The genus name kalidris or skalidris is a term used by Aristotle for some grey-coloured waterside birds. The specific himantopus means "strap foot" or "thong foot". [2]

Contents

Taxonomy

This sandpiper bears some resemblance to the smaller calidrid sandpipers or "stints". DNA sequence information is incapable of determining whether it should be placed in Calidris or in the monotypic genus Micropalama . [3] It appears most closely allied with the curlew sandpiper, [4] which is another aberrant species only tentatively placed in Calidris and could conceivably be separated with it in Erolia .

Range & habitat

The stilt sandpiper breeds in the open arctic tundra of North America. It is a long-distance migrant, wintering mainly in northern South America. It occurs as a rare vagrant in western Europe, Japan and northern Australia. [5]

Breeding

This species nests on the ground, laying three or four eggs. The male has a display flight. Outside the breeding season, this bird is normally found on inland waters, rather than open coasts.

Stilt sandpiper in Quintana, Texas Stilt Sandpiper by Dan Pancamo.jpg
Stilt sandpiper in Quintana, Texas

Description

This species resembles the curlew sandpiper in its curved bill, long neck, pale supercilium and white rump. It is readily distinguished from that species by its much longer and paler legs, which give rise to its common and scientific names. It also lacks an obvious wing bar in flight. Breeding adults are distinctive, heavily barred beneath, and with reddish patches above and below the supercilium. The back is brown with darker feather centres. Winter plumage is basically gray above and white below. Juvenile stilt sandpipers resemble the adults in their strong head pattern and brownish back, but they are not barred below, and show white fringes on the back feathering.

Measurements:

Diet

These birds forage on muddy, picking up food by sight, often jabbing like the dowitchers with which they often associate. They mainly eat insects, other invertebrates (such as molluscs), seeds, and the leaves and roots of aquatic plants. [8]

Related Research Articles

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<i>Calidris</i> Genus of birds

Calidris is a genus of Arctic-breeding, strongly migratory wading birds in the family Scolopacidae. These birds form huge mixed flocks on coasts and estuaries in winter. Migratory shorebirds are shown to have decline in reproductive traits because of temporal changes of their breeding seasons(Weiser et al., 2018). They are the typical "sandpipers", small to medium-sized, long-winged and relatively short-billed.

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Hybridisation in shorebirds has been proven on only a small number of occasions; however, many individual shorebirds have been recorded by birdwatchers worldwide that do not fit the characters of known species. Many of these have been suspected of being hybrids. In several cases, shorebird hybrids have been described as new species before their hybrid origin was discovered. Compared to other groups of birds, only a few species of shorebirds are known or suspected to hybridise, but nonetheless, these hybrids occur quite frequently in some cases.

References

  1. BirdLife International (2016). "Calidris himantopus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2016: e.T22693437A93407752. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22693437A93407752.en . Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  2. Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. pp.  84, 191. ISBN   978-1-4081-2501-4.
  3. Thomas, Gavin H.; Wills, Matthew A. & Székely, Tamás (2004). "A supertree approach to shorebird phylogeny". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 4: 28. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-4-28. PMC   515296 . PMID   15329156.
  4. Jehl Jr., Joseph R. (1973). "Breeding biology and systematic relationships of the Stilt Sandpiper" (PDF). The Wilson Bulletin . 85 (2): 115–147.
  5. Hayman, Peter; Marchant, John; Prater, Tony (1986). Shorebirds: an identification guide to the waders of the world. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. pp. 384–385. ISBN   0-395-60237-8.
  6. 1 2 "Stilt Sandpiper Identification, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology". www.allaboutbirds.org. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
  7. Oiseaux.net. "Bécasseau à échasses - Calidris himantopus - Stilt Sandpiper". www.oiseaux.net. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
  8. https://sta.uwi.edu/fst/lifesciences/sites/default/files/lifesciences/documents/ogatt/Calidris%20himantopus_Stilt%20sandpiper.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]