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Western Sandpiper | Calidris mauri
Alaskastrandloper | Correlimos de Alaska
The Western Sandpiper is a small sandpiper with black legs and a fairly long bill that droops slightly at the tip. It breeds almost exclusively in western and northern Alaska and winters along the coasts of the Americas. In the guide area it is the most numerous small sandpiper of the Pacific coast, where it occurs in winter and on migration in flocks of thousands.
Voice
A high, thin, slightly rasping cheet or jeet, higher 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 a fairly large head, black legs and a black bill that is longer than in the other small sandpipers and fine and slightly drooping at the tip; females have longer bills than males. In non-breeding plumage plain pale grey above with fine dark shaft streaks, white below, with a finely streaked grey wash on the breast sides. In breeding plumage, seen in April and May, rufous on the crown, ear coverts and scapulars and with dark arrowhead marks on the breast and flanks. Juveniles have rufous upper scapulars. In flight a narrow white wing bar.
Confusion species
Semipalmated Sandpiper Calidris pusilla is very similar but usually has a shorter, straight bill with a blunt tip and lacks the rufous on the scapulars; its call is lower. Least Sandpiper Calidris minutilla is smaller and browner, with yellow legs. Dunlin Calidris alpina also has a drooping bill but is larger and bulkier, with a darker grey-brown breast. Sanderling Calidris alba is much paler in winter, with a shorter, straight bill.
Habitat
Mudflats and tidal flats, lagoons, estuaries, salt pans, sandy beaches, salt marshes and the muddy edges of mangroves, also shrimp ponds, sewage ponds and rice fields near the coast; inland mainly on migration. It feeds in dense flocks, often in slightly deeper water than other small sandpipers, probing quickly in the mud.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Abundant along the whole Pacific coast, from Baja California and the Gulf of California to Panama, with large concentrations in the Bay of Panama on migration and in winter. Locally common on the Gulf coast of Mexico and the Yucatán Peninsula, scarcer along the Caribbean coast of Central America; inland mainly on migration. Outside the guide area the species breeds in western and northern Alaska and the far east of Siberia and winters along the coasts of the United States, the Caribbean and northern South America to Peru and Suriname.
- Winter visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
The mudflats of the Bay of Panama and the lagoons along the Pacific coast of Mexico hold large flocks from August to April; on a rising tide they come close to the shore, where the bill shape can be seen well.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The population is large but highly concentrated at a small number of staging sites on migration, so loss of mudflats and disturbance there weigh heavily. In the guide area coastal habitats are being lost to shrimp farming, port construction and development.
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.