Pectoral Sandpiper (Calidris melanotos)

Pectoral Sandpiper, Cattle Point, Uplands, Near Victoria, British Columbia
Photograph by Alan And Elaine Wilson. Some rights reserved. (view image details)

Pectoral Sandpiper | Calidris melanotos photo

Pectoral Sandpiper, Cattle Point, Uplands, Near Victoria, British Columbia
Photograph by Alan And Elaine Wilson. Some rights reserved. (view image details)

PECTORAL SANDPIPER FACTS

Description
The Pectoral Sandpiper is a medium-sized sandpiper with fairly long slightly downward curved bill and fairly long yellowish or greenish legs. The back is reddish brown and black with two thin white stripes along the back. The chest is gray brown streaked, and underside is white. The rump and centre of tail is dark. The head is grayish brown with brown cap and brown stripe from eye to bill. Males and females are similar. Juvenile birds are similar to adult with more prominent pattern on back and finer chest streaks.

Size
length 22cm. Wingspan 43cm

Environment
breeds in coastal tundra. Winters in wet grassland, mudflats, shores of ponds

Food
insects and other invertebrates.

Breeding
Nest is a scrape on the ground. Lays four eggs.

Range
Breeds across Alaska and far northern Canada. Also in north east Siberia. Winters inland in South America, south east Asia and South Pacific.

Classification

Class:	Aves
Order:	Charadriiformes
Family:	Scolopacidae
Genus:	Calidris
Species:	melanotos
Common Name:	Pectoral Sandpiper

Relatives in same Genus
  Sanderling (C. alba)
  Dunlin (C. alpina)
  Least Sandpiper (C. minutilla)
  Rock Sandpiper (C. ptilocnemis)

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