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Common Greenshank | Tringa nebularia
Groenpootruiter | Archibebe Claro
The Common Greenshank is the largest and most widespread Tringa sandpiper in southern Africa. From the tidal creeks of Mozambique to farm dams in the Karoo it stands alert at the water's edge, and its loud triple call is, for many birders, the sound of summer wetlands.
Voice
A loud, clear, ringing tew-tew-tew, three (sometimes two or four) even notes on one pitch, especially on take-off; it carries far and is often heard before the bird is seen. When alarmed a hard chip.
Recording: Noé Ferrari — CC BY 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
30–35 cm. A large, pale grey sandpiper with a heavy, slightly upturned bill, grey at the base and dark towards the tip, and long greenish-grey legs. In non-breeding plumage pale grey above with fine dark shaft streaks and pale fringes, head and neck finely streaked, underparts pure white. In flight a plain dark wing without a wing bar and a broad white wedge from the rump far up the back; the toes project just beyond the tail. In breeding plumage, sometimes in March, it has black centres to the mantle and scapular feathers and a more densely streaked neck.
Confusion species
Marsh Sandpiper Tringa stagnatilis is smaller and finer, with a needle-thin, straight bill and proportionately longer legs. Terek Sandpiper Xenus cinereus also has an upturned bill but is smaller and squat, with short orange-yellow legs, and runs very fast. Common Redshank Tringa totanus is browner, with orange-red legs and a white trailing edge to the wing.
Habitat
Almost any open water with shallow margins, fresh or saline: estuaries, lagoons, mangroves, tidal mudflats, salt works, pans, dams, riverbanks and sewage ponds. It hunts small fish, shrimps and insect larvae while wading, sometimes with short dashes through the shallows.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of southern Africa.
Range and movements
Throughout the region, on the coast and inland: common in South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi, Eswatini and Namibia (especially the coast at Walvis Bay), and also in Angola and Lesotho. Beyond the region it breeds in the boreal zone from Scotland and Scandinavia to eastern Siberia and winters from western Europe and the Mediterranean to sub-Saharan Africa, southern Asia and Australia.
- 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
Present year-round on the coast, with most birds from October to March; the best sites are estuaries and lagoons at low to mid tide. Use the Common Greenshank as a yardstick against which to compare other sandpipers for size and bill shape.
Conservation status
Not threatened; the world population is large and stable. Inland it benefits from dams and sewage ponds; coastal birds are sensitive to disturbance and the loss of tidal habitats.
Scientific name
Tringa nebularia | (Gunnerus, 1767)
Gunnerus described the species in 1767 as Scolopax nebularia; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Tringa was introduced in 1758 by Linnaeus. Tringa is the Neo-Latin name Aldrovandi gave to the green sandpiper, after Ancient Greek trungas, a thrush-sized, white-rumped, tail-bobbing wading bird mentioned by Aristotle. nebularia is Latin, from nebula 'mist', after the damp, misty marshland where the bird breeds. The specimen the first description was based on came from Trondheim, Norway.