Curlew Sandpiper
Curlew Sandpiper
(Calidris ferruginea)
Also known as Pygmy Curlew and Curlew-Stint.
Description: Small to medium sized wader. It has a long, black bill with a down curved end and black legs and feet. During their non-breeding, the plumage is grey brown above, white below with a white wing bar visible in flight. When breeding the plumage is a bright reddish brown below and the wings are barred black.
Size: 18-23cm
Voice: Loud ‘Chirrup’
Feeding: Feeds on insects, and their larvae when breeding. Especially the polychaete worms. Procures its food on sandy or muddy flats during low tides or marshes/wetlands during a high tide.
Habitat: Found on intertidal mudflats of estuaries, lagoons, mangroves as well as beaches, around dams, lakes and floodwaters.
Location: Common summer migrant from northeastern Siberia and Alaska, found in Australia coastally or inland suitable habitats. Sometimes in freshwater wetlands in the Murray-Darling basin – records of this are mainly of birds pausing for a few days during migration.
Nests: An exposed depression in the ground. The female builds the nest, incubates the eggs and raises the young alone.
Eggs: 4 - greenish-grey with rufous-brown markings and underlying spots of purplish-grey
Breeding: June (northern Siberia)
Acknowledgements: www.Birdlife.org.au Field Guide to the Birds of Australia: Simpson and Day, A Naturalists Guide to the Birds of Australia: Dean Ingwersen National Geographic, What Bird is that?: Neville W Cayleys, www.birdsinbackyards.net, https://www.xeno-canto.org/