Back on May 26, I published the first episode on shorebirds which you can find here. www.dailykos.com/… Today I’m adding part 2. I’m borrowing heavily from All About Birds for this diary.
Shorebirds are fascinating. They constitute a huge class of birds and have more diversity within them than just about any other grouping. From tiny (Least Sandpipers) to huge (Long-billed Curlews), shorebirds are real show-stoppers. Identifying them can be a bit daunting at first, but once you get a little experience, you’ll find them easier to ID. Sandpipers (“peeps”) are especially difficult and it takes a very practiced eye to discern the fine distinctions between several of them. This is where a good field guide or app comes in handy.
Also, a note about shorebird migration. Shorebirds fly some of the longest migrations known, moving from nesting grounds in the farthest reaches of the north to wintering grounds in southernmost South America. Worldwide, there are 203 species of shorebirds in 12 families
Traveling thousands of miles, shorebirds move as their current climate becomes harsh and challenging. They move on to places where the climate is more benign and less stressful for them. For example, in June, Arctic breeding grounds offer 24 hours of sunlight. Having double the daylight hours gives shorebirds that much more time to feed and store energy. Food is the constant driving motivation, and for these hemispheric migrants, departure time for the next journey is never far off.
Let’s jump back in, starting with L, shall we?
Least Sandpipers
Kind of a funny name, Least Sandpipers. There is no Most Sandpiper. But there is a Lesser Yellowlegs and a Greater Yellowlegs. Go figure.
Least Sandpipers are the smallest of the small sandpipers known as “peeps”—not much bigger than a sparrow. They have distinctive yellow-green legs and a high-pitched creep call. Look for them on edges of mudflats or marshes, where they walk with a hunched posture and probe for little crustaceans, insects, and other invertebrates. This common but declining shorebird migrates thousands of miles between its arctic breeding grounds and wintering grounds as far south as Chile and Brazil.
Least Sandpipers breed in the tundra of the far north, so most people see them during migration (April to May and July to October) or winter. Look for them on mudflats or protected beaches. They are easiest to find on the coasts but are also plentiful as migrants on inland bodies of water. Once you find a suitable habitat of wet mud or sand, scan the edges of the water and look for very small sandpipers, warm brown above and white below with a short, thin, slightly decurved bill. If you can see yellowish legs you’ll be able to narrow down this bird quickly; just keep in mind that their legs sometimes look dark from mud stains. Shorebird identification can be complicated, so it’s important to look closely and carefully.
- The Least Sandpiper is the smallest shorebird in the world, weighing in at about 1 ounce and measuring 5-6 inches long. Males are slightly smaller than females.
- Eastern populations probably fly nonstop over the ocean from the Gulf of St. Lawrence and New England to wintering grounds in northeastern South America, a distance of about 1,800 to 2,500 miles.
- Researchers studying Least Sandpipers discovered a new feeding mechanism. While probing damp mud with their bills, the sandpipers use the surface tension of the water to transport prey quickly from their bill tips to their mouths.
- Least Sandpipers hunt for food on slightly drier, higher ground compared to other small sandpipers. Although numerous worldwide, they usually flock in smaller numbers—dozens rather than hundreds or thousands—than some other shorebirds.
Long-billed Curlews
The Long-billed Curlew is North America’s largest shorebird. It is a graceful creature with an almost impossibly long, thin, and curved bill. This speckled, cinnamon-washed shorebird probes deep into mud and sand for aquatic invertebrates on its coastal wintering grounds and picks up grasshoppers on the breeding grounds. It breeds in the grasslands of the Great Plains and Great Basin and spends the winter in wetlands, tidal estuaries, mudflats, flooded fields, and beaches.
As a newbie birder, I only saw Long-billed Curlews in coastal flats and estuaries, so I had no idea I might also find them in grasslands in other locations. Then I moved to California’s Central Valley and discovered that curlews wandered about grasslands and fields searching for prey there, too.
The silhouette of the Long-billed Curlew is unmistakable: whether standing in a shortgrass prairie or in a tidal mudflat, these birds stand out. The only other bird with a long bill is the Whimbrel, but its bill isn't nearly as long and it doesn't stand nearly as tall. On the breeding grounds look for a long neck and long bill strutting through the grasslands, often flanked by other curlews foraging in a line. During migration and on the wintering grounds, they forage in small groups and with other shorebirds including Willets and Marbled Godwits.
- Male and female Long-billed Curlews look pretty much alike, but females have a longer bill with a more pronounced curve at the tip than males.
- The Long-billed Curlew's genus name, Numenius, means “of the new moon,” and describes the slender, curved shape of the bird’s bill.
- Male and female Long-billed Curlews incubate the eggs and care for the brood. The female typically abandons the brood 2–3 weeks after hatching, leaving her mate to care for the young. Despite the split, the pair may breed together again the following year.
Long-billed Dowitchers
Wintering flocks of Long-billed Dowitchers are muddy gray-brown birds that match their muddy foraging sites—a far cry from the intricate black, rufous, brown, and gold brocade of breeding birds on their tundra summer homes. These tubby, long-billed shorebirds plunge their bills deep into wet mud or sand to find invertebrate food. Flocks twitter at each other while feeding—a habit that sets them apart from the otherwise very similar Short-billed Dowitcher. In northern Alaska and Siberia, males court females with effervescent song flights.
- The Long-billed Dowitcher is only half well-named: females usually do have a bill that is impressively longer than Short-billed Dowitchers’, but males often do not, and in general bill length is not a very useful way to separate the two species.
- The tip of a Long-billed Dowitcher’s bill has many tactile receptors called Herbst corpuscles that allow dowitchers to locate prey by touch.
- Although both sexes share incubation of the eggs, only the male takes care of the young once they hatch.
Finding dowitchers is a matter of seasonal timing and finding wetlands with the right water level—about 3 inches deep or less. Checking freshwater ponds, impoundments, reservoir edges, sewage treatment facilities, and the like will usually produce a few dowitchers in season—just check eBird bar charts to know when they pass through your area. Long-billed and Short-billed Dowitchers are extremely similar: the best clues are voice. If they are calling from the ground as they feed, or if you hear the diagnostic keek! call, they are Long-billed. Long-billed Dowitchers also tend to be seen more often in freshwater than in saltwater habitats.
Marbled Godwits
Shorebirds have some of the most interesting bill shapes and the Marbled Godwit is no exception with its swordlike bill. It plunges its two-toned, long, and slightly upturned bill deep into sand and mud to pull out aquatic invertebrates and plant tubers. This graceful shorebird is speckled in browns with a cinnamon wash that is especially noticeable when it spreads its long and pointed wings to take flight. It breeds in the northern prairies and spends the winters along the coasts.
Compare the Marbled Godwit photo above to the Long-billed Dowitcher in breeding plumage in the last photo above that. They have similar plumage, but the distinction that sets the Marbled Godwit apart and will always help you with ID is that two-toned bill. No other shorebird in North America has that bi-colored (or “pied”) bill.
Marbled Godwits might be easiest to find on the wintering grounds, where they congregate along shorelines and estuaries along the coast. They forage in shallow waters, sometimes just getting their feet wet and other times standing in water up to their bellies. Their large size, very long, upturned bill, and cinnamon plumage help them stand out from other shorebirds. In flight look for their cinnamon wings and feet that extend beyond the tail, unlike Whimbrels whose feet do not extend beyond the tail.
Here’s an in-flight photo that displays the extension of the feet. It’s not the best photo, a little fuzzy, but it does the job.
Some other facts about Marbled Godwits:
- Most Marbled Godwits breed in the northern Great Plains, but there are two far-flung exceptions. One small population breeds along the southwest coast of James Bay, Ontario, Canada. Another small group breeds on the Alaska Peninsula. The Alaskan birds have shorter wings and are heavier than those breeding in the Great Plains.
- Unlike most shorebirds that eat aquatic invertebrates year-round, Marbled Godwits forage almost exclusively on plant tubers during migration, using their upturned bill to clip tubers.
- The oldest known Marbled Godwit was at least 13 years, 4 months old when it was found in California, the same state where it had been banded.
Plovers
If I had a photo of a Mountain Plover or a Pacific Golden Plover or a Piping Plover, they would go here. Alas, I don’t. I had a few photos of a group of Mountain Plovers, but they were taken from too far away and they were hard to distinguish from the dirt clods in the field where they were foraging. No, the only plover photos I have are Black-bellied Plovers. And in non-breeding plumage to boot.
I know, I know, where’s the black belly, right? The black belly appears in breeding season and boy, is it ever black. Here’s a photo I Googled:
Amazing difference, right?
- Wary and quick to give alarm calls, the Black-bellied Plover functions worldwide as a sentinel for mixed groups of shorebirds. These qualities allowed it to resist market hunters, and it remained common when populations of other species of similar size were devastated.
- The Black-bellied Plover may be more sensitive to disturbance than many other birds because it is especially wary, flushing from the nest or feeding and roosting sites when potential predators are still far away. Nevertheless, no evidence exists for desertion of the nest or roost sites because of disturbance.
Red-necked Phalarope
Here we have another bird with dramatic differences between its breeding and non-breeding plumages. Like the Black-bellied Plover, the Red-necked Phalarope only has a red neck in its breeding plumage.
A shorebird that’s at home on the open ocean, the Red-necked Phalarope is a tiny grayish bird with a needle-thin bill. Females are brighter than males. On their Arctic breeding grounds these birds are blue-gray with a reddish wash on the neck; in winter they are a streaky gray on the back, white below, with a bold black patch across the eye.
- In phalaropes, it’s the females that are the more brightly colored sex. They get into fierce fights over the males they want to mate with. Then after they’ve laid their eggs, they take no part in raising the young and often seek out another male and lay another clutch.
- The oldest recorded Red-necked Phalarope was a male, and at least 5 years old when it was captured and then re-released at a banding station in Alaska.
Ruddy Turnstone
For the longest time, I’d only ever seen Black Turnstones but never the Ruddy. Then one day a couple of years ago, I went birding with some friends out on the Northern California coast and there was this Ruddy Turnstone just prancing around a wooden walkway near the harbor.
A shorebird that looks almost like a calico cat, the Ruddy Turnstone's orange legs and uniquely patterned black-and-white head and chest make them easy to pick out of a crowd. These long-distance migrants breed in the arctic tundra, but spend the off seasons on rocky shorelines and sandy beaches on both North American coasts (as well as South America, Eurasia, Africa, and Australia). They use their stout, slightly upturned bill to flip debris on the beach to uncover insects and small crustaceans.
To find a Ruddy Turnstone, hit the beach; almost any time of the year will do, but they are more numerous in the spring and fall. Ruddy Turnstones also show up at inland marshes and lakeshores, but they are more common on the coast. They don’t wade in deeper waters, so be on the lookout for them at the water’s edge, where the high tide deposits shells, rocks, seaweed, and other debris. At higher tides when there’s less exposed shoreline, look for them in rocky outcrops along the shore. Most often you can get good looks at turnstones with binoculars but as with many shorebirds, having a spotting scope will help you get better looks without disturbing them.
- For shorebirds like the Ruddy Turnstone, getting fat is critical. Unlike humans, which use carbohydrates as fuel, birds use fat to power their migrations. Birds that don’t get fat enough before they depart often leave later and some may not even make it to the breeding or wintering grounds.
- Walking on wet and slippery rocks can be treacherous for just about anyone without good gripping shoes. Ruddy Turnstones have special feet that are somewhat spiny, with short, sharply curved toenails that help them hold on. They also have a low center of gravity thanks to their short legs that help keep them anchored.
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- Young turnstones need to grow up and learn to fly quickly. They take their first flight when they are around 19 days old and fly thousands of miles to the nonbreeding grounds 2 days later. To make things harder, their parents will have departed by this time, leaving the youngsters to make their first migration on their own.
- There are about 350 species of shorebirds (order Charadriiformes) in the world, but there are only 2 turnstones, the Ruddy Turnstone and the Black Turnstone, both of which occur in North America.
- Ruddy Turnstones need to fly fast to cover the enormous distances between their breeding and nonbreeding grounds. Flight speeds of turnstones average between 27 and 47 miles per hour.
Sanderlings
Have you figured out yet that most of my photos of these shorebirds show them in non-breeding plumage? And that because so many of them breed in the Arctic in the summer months, I’ve never seen them in breeding plumage much less photographed them? It’s one of the downsides for the non-traveling birder.
Here we have the Sanderling and while I think Least Sandpipers are cute, I find Sanderlings utterly adorable. Just look at this precious little thing:
The Sanderling’s black legs blur as it runs back and forth on the beach, picking or probing for tiny prey in the wet sand left by receding waves. Sanderlings are medium-sized “peep” sandpipers recognizable by their pale nonbreeding plumage, black legs and bill, and obsessive wave-chasing habits. Learn this species, and you’ll have an aid in sorting out less common shorebirds. These extreme long-distance migrants breed only on High Arctic tundra, but during the winter they live on most of the sandy beaches of the world.
Sanderlings are easy to find on sandy beaches from fall through spring. Pick a beach with a low, gradual slope and walk along the water’s edge. Look for small shorebirds running back and forth in sync with the waves—these are likely to be Sanderlings. While other shorebirds such as plovers and Willets may feed alongside Sanderlings on these outer beaches, this is truly the Sanderling’s domain; these plucky birds often aggressively defend their feeding territories at water’s edge from other shorebirds.
- The Sanderling is one of the world’s most widespread shorebirds. Though they nest only in the High Arctic, in fall and winter you can find them on nearly all temperate and tropical sandy beaches throughout the world. The Ruddy Turnstone and the Whimbrel are the only other shorebirds that rival its worldwide distribution.
Here's your Least Sandpiper/Sanderling comparison in one photo. This really shows you how tiny Least Sandpipers are because Sanderlings are not at all large birds.
- Nonbreeding Sanderlings often stay on the wintering grounds through the summer, saving energy by avoiding the long trip to the Arctic nesting grounds. Many nonbreeders remain in South America, while fewer remain along the North American coasts.
- After foraging on the beach, Sanderlings often regurgitate sand pellets studded with fragments of mollusk and crustacean shells.
Whimbrel
Lots of Whimbrel info to share, but next to zilch in the way of photos. I have exactly ONE Whimbrel photo to share. And I can’t even tell you why. I guess I was taking so many photos of other birds at the time, I just whiffed on the Whimbrel. But here's the gorgeous bird I got!
An elegant, brownish shorebird with a very long, curved bill, the Whimbrel announces itself with effervescent, piping calls. It occupies open habitats—tundra for nesting; and mudflats, beaches, and saltmarshes the rest of the year. Whimbrels feed mostly on crabs and other marine invertebrates, which they extract from sand or mud using their outrageous bills. They also eat berries and insects when available. They migrate between arctic nesting areas and wintering grounds as far south as Bolivia, sometimes having to skirt hurricanes as they fly over open ocean.
- Hope was the name given to a female Whimbrel captured on the coast of Virginia in 2009 and fitted with a satellite transmitter. Over the next three years, researchers Hope for more than 50,000 miles (80,000 kilometers) traveling back and forth between her breeding area on the Mackenzie River in western Canada and her wintering site, at Great Pond on St. Croix, British Virgin Islands. She returned to her wintering grounds for five more seasons, recognized there by her leg band. The subject of a children’s book, Hope became an ambassador for shorebird migrants—and ultimately was the reason for the preservation and protection of Great Pond.
- Some migrating Whimbrels make a nonstop overwater flight of 4,000 km (2,500 miles) from southern Canada or New England to South America.
- In many regions, the primary winter food of the Whimbrel is fiddler crab. The curve of the Whimbrel's bill nicely matches the shape of fiddler crab burrows. The bird reaches into the crab's burrow, extracts the crab, washes it if it is muddy, and sometimes breaks off the claws and legs before swallowing it. Indigestible parts are excreted in fecal pellets.
Willets
Willets are one of the first shorebird species I got to know and figured out their ID. I was so excited when those white underwing markings confirmed what I thought they were. I was actually becoming a birder, all on my own!
In winter, Willets are easy to spot feeding along the water’s edge. They’re one of the largest common shorebirds, so even though they’re indistinctly marked, you can learn to quickly recognize their overall chunky shape, subdued plumage, and thick, long bill. To be absolutely sure, look for distinctive black-and-white wing markings when they take flight, and listen for the pill-will-willet call that gives them their name.
Not a very good photo above, but it does capture the clear giveaway ID feature of the Willet — those white underwing bars.
Here’s a photo of a Willet with a couple of Least Sandpipers in the frame. Again, another good indicator telling you how tiny those little Least Sandpipers are.
Piercing calls and distinctive wing markings make the otherwise subdued Willet one of our most conspicuous large shorebirds. Whether in mottled brown breeding plumage or gray winter colors, Willets in flight reveal a bold white and black stripe running the length of each wing. These long-legged, straight-billed shorebirds feed along beaches, mudflats, and rocky shores. Willets are common on most of our coastline—learn to recognize them and they’ll make a useful stepping-stone to identifying other shorebirds.
- Although both parents incubate the eggs, only the male Willet spends the night on the nest.
- Like Killdeer, Willets will pretend to be disabled by a broken wing in order to draw attention to themselves and lure predators away from their eggs or chicks.
- Because they find prey using the sensitive tips of their bills, and not just eyesight, Willets can feed both during the day and at night.
- Willets breeding in the interior of the West differ from the Atlantic Coastal form in ecology, shape, and subtly in calls. Western Willets breed in freshwater habitats, and are slightly larger and paler gray. Eastern Willets have stouter bills and more barring on their chest and back. The difference in pitch between the calls of the two subspecies is very difficult for a person to detect, but the birds can hear the difference and respond more strongly to recorded calls of their own type.
- Willets and other shorebirds were once a popular food. In his famous Birds of America accounts, John James Audubon wrote that Willet eggs were tasty and the young “grow rapidly, become fat and juicy, and by the time they are able to fly, afford excellent food.” By the early 1900s, Willets had almost vanished north of Virginia. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 banned market hunting and marked the start of the Willet’s comeback.
Only now at the end of this writing do I realize I should have entitled this diary, “Some But Actually Not Many of the Shorebirds Found in North America and Specifically in the United States in Mostly Non-breeding Plumage.” Not exactly lyrical, that. But the point is, this diary shares but a fraction of the many shorebirds in the world and the small sub-section of those I’ve actually encountered and photographed. With the exception of a couple of Googled images so labeled, all the photos are mine.
It’s Father’s Day, so Happy Father’s Day to all of you dads out there. Anyone going birding? Hanging out at home celebrating? What’s going on in your birding world? Please use this as an open thread for all bird-related stories and questions and postings of everything birdy!