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Western Sandpiper | Calidris mauri
Alaskastrandloper | Correlimos de Alaska
The Western Sandpiper breeds almost exclusively in western and northern Alaska and the far east of Siberia, and migrates mainly south along the Pacific coast. Part of the population, however, winters on the Atlantic side, along the Gulf of Mexico and in the Caribbean. Here it is a winter visitor that has to be picked out among the far more numerous Semipalmated and Least Sandpipers.
Voice
A high, thin cheet or jeet, higher and finer than the call of Semipalmated Sandpiper.
Recording: Paul Marvin — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
14–17 cm, with black legs and a black bill that is longer than in Semipalmated Sandpiper and droops slightly at the tip; females have the longest bills. In winter plumage pale grey above with dark shaft streaks, white below, with finely streaked breast sides. Juveniles in autumn have rufous fringes to the upper scapulars, which show as a rusty band. Breeding adults show much rufous on the scapulars, crown and ear coverts and arrow-shaped marks on the breast and flanks.
Confusion species
Semipalmated Sandpiper Calidris pusilla has a shorter, straight bill with a blunt tip, usually lacks rufous on the scapulars and moults later into winter plumage; short-billed Western and long-billed Semipalmated Sandpipers overlap, so not every bird can be identified. Least Sandpiper Calidris minutilla is browner, with yellow legs. Dunlin Calidris alpina is larger, with a longer, more obviously decurved bill.
Habitat
Mudflats and tidal flats, salt pans, shallow lagoons, sewage ponds, rice fields and sandy beaches. It often feeds in slightly deeper water than Semipalmated Sandpiper, probing deep into the mud.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
Winter visitor and passage migrant throughout the region, most numerous in the north and west: Cuba, the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Hispaniola (mainly the Dominican Republic), Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. In the Lesser Antilles more irregular and in smaller numbers, although it is seen regularly on Guadeloupe and Barbados. In the south on the ABC Islands (especially Bonaire), San Andrés and Trinidad and Tobago. Beyond the region it winters along the coasts of the United States, Mexico and Central America to northern South America.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Winter visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
From October to March on mudflats and salt pans in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas. For identification, best in August and September, when juveniles show their rusty scapular band and early moulters are already grey while Semipalmated Sandpipers still look brown.
Conservation status
Not threatened. The species is numerous, but depends heavily on a small number of large stopover sites along the Pacific coast. In the Caribbean, mudflats and salt pans are lost to coastal development and port works.
Scientific name
Calidris mauri | (Cabanis, 1857)
Cabanis described the species in 1857 as Ereunetes Mauri; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Calidris was introduced in 1804 by Merrem. Calidris goes back to Ancient Greek kalidris or skalidris, a name Aristotle used for an unidentified grey waterside bird. mauri honours the Italian botanist Ernesto Mauri (1791–1836). The specimen the first description was based on came from Cuba.