Temminck's stint

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Temminck's stint
Temmincks Stint.jpg
In breeding plumage
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Scolopacidae
Genus: Calidris
Species:
C. temminckii
Binomial name
Calidris temminckii
(Leisler, 1812)
CalidrisTemminckiiIUCN2019 2.png
Range of C. temminckii
  Breeding
  Passage
  Non-breeding
Synonyms [2]

Erolia temminckii

Temminck's stint (Calidris temminckii) is a small wader. This bird's common name and Latin binomial commemorate the Dutch naturalist Coenraad Jacob Temminck. [3] The genus name is from Ancient Greek kalidris or skalidris, a term used by Aristotle for some grey-coloured waterside birds. [4]

Contents

Temminck's stint is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.

Description

These birds are very small waders, at 13.5–15 cm (5.3–5.9 in) length. They are similar in size to the little stint (Calidris minuta) but shorter legged and longer winged. The legs are yellow and the outer tail feathers white, in contrast to little stint's dark legs and grey outer tail feathers.

This is a rather drab wader, with mainly plain brown upperparts and head, and underparts white apart from a darker breast. The breeding adult has some brighter rufous mantle feathers to relieve the generally undistinguished appearance. In winter plumage, the general appearance recalls a tiny version of common sandpiper.

The call is a loud trill.

Breeding

This stint's breeding habitat is bogs and marshes in the taiga of Arctic northern Europe and Asia. It will breed in southern Scandinavia and occasionally Scotland. It has a distinctive hovering display flight. It nests in a scrape on the ground, laying 3–4 eggs. Temminck's stint is strongly migratory, wintering at freshwater sites in tropical Africa, the Indian Subcontinent and parts of Southeast Asia.

Temminck's stints have an intriguing breeding and parental care system in which males and female parents incubate separate clutches, typically in different locations. Males establish small territories and mate with a female who lays a first clutch of eggs. She then moves to a second territory and mate, and lays a second clutch that she incubates herself. Concurrently, her first male may mate with an incoming second female, who lays her second clutch on his territory. The male thereafter incubates his first mate's first clutch alone.

An apparent hybrid between this species and the little stint has been reported from the Netherlands. [5]

Feeding

These birds forage in soft mud with some vegetation, mainly picking up food by sight. They have a distinctive mouse-like feeding behaviour, creeping steadily along the edges of pools. They mostly eat insects and other small invertebrates. They are not as gregarious as other Calidris waders, and rarely form large flocks.

Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden Calidris temminckii MWNH 0157.JPG
Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stint</span> Group of birds

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dunlin</span> Species of bird

The dunlin is a small wader, formerly sometimes separated with the other "stints" in the genus Erolia. The English name is a dialect form of "dunling", first recorded in 1531–1532. It derives from dun, "dull brown", with the suffix -ling, meaning a person or thing with the given quality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little stint</span> Species of bird

The little stint is a very small wader. It breeds in arctic Europe and Asia, and is a long-distance migrant, wintering south to Africa and south Asia. It occasionally is a vagrant to North America and to Australia. The genus name is from Ancient Greek kalidris or skalidris, a term used by Aristotle for some grey-coloured waterside birds. The specific minuta is Latin for "small.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Least sandpiper</span> Species of bird

The least sandpiper is the smallest shorebird. The genus name is from Ancient Greek kalidris or skalidris, a term used by Aristotle for some grey-colored waterside birds. The specific minutilla is Medieval Latin for "very small".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western sandpiper</span> Species of bird

The western sandpiper is a small shorebird. The genus name is from Ancient Greek kalidris or skalidris, a term used by Aristotle for some grey-coloured waterside birds. The specific mauri commemorates Italian botanist Ernesto Mauri (1791–1836).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White-rumped sandpiper</span> Species of bird

The white-rumped sandpiper is a small shorebird that breeds in the northern tundra of Canada and Alaska. This bird can be difficult to distinguish from other similar tiny shorebirds; these are known collectively as "peeps" or "stints".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little ringed plover</span> Species of bird

The little ringed plover is a small plover. The genus name Charadrius is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. It derives from Ancient Greek kharadrios a bird found in river valleys. The specific dubius is Latin for doubtful, since Sonnerat, writing in 1776, thought this bird might be just a variant of common ringed plover.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cetti's warbler</span> Species of bird

Cetti's warbler is a small, brown bush-warbler which breeds in southern and central Europe, northwest Africa and the east Palearctic as far as Afghanistan and northwest Pakistan. The sexes are alike. The bird is named after the 18th century Italian zoologist, Francesco Cetti. This species is very difficult to see because of its skulking habits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruff (bird)</span> Species of bird

The ruff is a medium-sized wading bird that breeds in marshes and wet meadows across northern Eurasia. This highly gregarious sandpiper is migratory and sometimes forms huge flocks in its winter grounds, which include southern and western Europe, Africa, southern Asia and Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red-necked stint</span> Species of bird

The red-necked stint is a small migratory wader. The genus name is from Ancient Greek kalidris or skalidris, a term used by Aristotle for some grey-coloured waterside birds. The specific ruficollis is from Latin rufus, "red" and collum, "neck".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curlew sandpiper</span> Species of bird

The curlew sandpiper is a small wader that breeds on the tundra of Arctic Siberia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Broad-billed sandpiper</span> Species of bird

The broad-billed sandpiper is a small wading bird. The scientific name is from Latin. The specific name falcinella is from falx, falcis, "a sickle. Some research suggests that it should rather go into the genus Philomachus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eurasian dotterel</span> Species of bird

The Eurasian dotterel, also known in Europe as just dotterel, is a small wader in the plover family of birds. It is the only species placed in the genus Eudromias.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Long-toed stint</span> Species of bird

The long-toed stint is a small wader. The genus name is from Ancient Greek kalidris or skalidris, a term used by Aristotle for some grey-coloured waterside birds. The specific subminuta is from Latin sub, "near to" and minuta, "small" from its similarity to the little stint, Calidris minuta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sharp-tailed sandpiper</span> Species of shorebird

The sharp-tailed sandpiper is a small-medium migratory wader or shorebird, found mostly in Siberia during the summer breeding period and Australia for wintering.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great knot</span> Species of bird

The great knot is a small wader. It is the largest species of the genus Calidris. They are a migratory bird which breeds in Siberia, Russia, and flies to southern Asia and Australia in the northern winter.

<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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stilt sandpiper</span> Species of bird

The stilt sandpiper 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".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buff-bellied pipit</span> Species of bird

The buff-bellied pipit or American pipit is a small songbird found on both sides of the northern Pacific. It was first described by Marmaduke Tunstall in his 1771 Ornithologia Britannica. It was formerly classified as a form of the water pipit. It is known as "American pipit" in North America and "buff-bellied pipit" in Eurasia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White-fronted plover</span> Species of shorebird of the family Charadriidae from Sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar

The white-fronted plover or white-fronted sandplover is a small shorebird of the family Charadriidae that inhabits sandy beaches, dunes, mudflats and the shores of rivers and lakes in sub-saharan Africa and Madagascar. It nests in small shallow scrapes in the ground and lays clutches of one to three eggs. The species is monogamous and long-lived, with a life expectancy of approximately 12 years. The vast majority of pairs that mate together stay together during the following years of breeding and retain the same territory. The white-fronted plover has a similar appearance to the Kentish plover, with a white fore crown and dark bands connecting the eyes to the bill.

References

  1. BirdLife International (2019). "Calidris temminckii". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2019: e.T22693388A146637675. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2019-3.RLTS.T22693388A146637675.en . Retrieved November 11, 2021.
  2. "Calidris temminckii". Avibase.
  3. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael (2003). Whose Bird? Men and Women Commemorated in the Common Names of Birds. London: Christopher Helm. pp. 335–336.
  4. Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p.  84. ISBN   978-1-4081-2501-4.
  5. Jonsson, Lars (1996). "Mystery stint at Groote Keeten: First known hybrid between Little and Temminck's Stint?". Dutch Birding . 18: 24–28.

Further reading

Identification