All species › Waders, gulls and terns › Sandpipers and allies › Semipalmated Sandpiper
Semipalmated Sandpiper | Calidris pusilla
Grijze strandloper | Correlimos semipalmeado | Maçarico-rasteirinho
The Semipalmated Sandpiper is one of the most numerous small sandpipers of the Americas. It breeds on the tundra of Alaska and Canada and winters mainly along the coasts of the Caribbean and northern South America. Its name refers to the small webs between the front toes, which are rarely visible in the field.
Voice
A short, low chrk or chit; flocks give a soft twittering.
Recording: AUDEVARD Aurélien — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
13–15 cm, a small, stocky sandpiper with a rather short, straight black bill with a blunt, slightly swollen tip and black legs. In non-breeding plumage plain greyish brown above with dark shaft streaks, with grey-washed breast sides and white underparts. In breeding plumage browner, with dark centres to the back feathers and a finely streaked breast. Juveniles have neatly scaled, greyish brown upperparts with pale fringes. In flight a narrow white wing bar and a rump with a dark central stripe. The sexes are alike; females average longer-billed.
Confusion species
Western Sandpiper Calidris mauri is very similar and in non-breeding plumage often separable only by the bill, which averages longer, finer at the tip and slightly drooping; juveniles have rufous upper scapulars. Least Sandpiper Calidris minutilla is smaller and browner, with yellowish green legs and a thinner, slightly decurved bill. Baird's Sandpiper Calidris bairdii and White-rumped Sandpiper Calidris fuscicollis are larger, with long wings that extend beyond the tail. Little Stint Calidris minuta, a very rare vagrant, lacks webbing and has a finer bill tip.
Habitat
Tidal flats, estuaries, lagoons, salt pans and salt marshes on the coast, less often sandy beaches and shores of lakes and rivers inland. It feeds in flocks, often together with Western Sandpipers, picking and probing with short movements for small crustaceans, worms and insect larvae. It does not breed in the guide area.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia a numerous winter visitor on the Caribbean coast, scarcer on the Pacific coast; on passage also inland. In Ecuador a scarce winter visitor on the coast. In Peru a scarce winter visitor on the north coast, rare farther south and inland. In Bolivia a rare passage migrant in the lowlands. On the Galápagos a scarce winter visitor. Breeds on the tundra of Alaska and Canada and winters mainly along the coasts of the Caribbean and northern South America, from Colombia to northeast Brazil.
- Resident
- Winter visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
From September to April on mudflats on the Caribbean coast of Colombia, often in large mixed flocks with Western Sandpipers; compare the blunt bill tip and the greyish brown plumage with those of the surrounding birds.
Conservation status
Near Threatened. The population has declined steeply, mainly through the loss of intertidal habitat along the flyways and through hunting on the wintering grounds in northern South America.
Scientific name
Calidris pusilla | (Linnaeus, 1766)
Linnaeus described the species in 1766 as Tringa pusilla; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Calidris was introduced in 1804 by Merrem. The genus name comes from Greek kalidris or skalidris, a term used by Aristotle for an unidentified grey waterside bird. The specific name comes from Latin pusillus, 'very small'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Hispaniola.