Pectoral Sandpiper

Calidris melanotos(Vieillot, 1819)

Native

Order: CHARADRIIFORMES
Family: Scolopacidae
Genus: Calidris

Commonness: Very common
Best seen: Year-round

01 · Identification

How to tell it apart

The pectoral sandpiper, often abbreviated pec, is a small, migratory wader that breeds in arctic regions of North America and Asia, wintering in South America and Oceania. It eats small invertebrates. Its nest, a hole scraped in the ground and with a thick lining, is deep enough to protect its four eggs from the cool breezes of its breeding grounds. The pectoral sandpiper is 19–23 cm (7.5–9.1 in) long, with a wingspan of 38–46 cm (15–18 in).

Description · wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

02 · Where

Where to find it

Breeding range: NA, PAL : high to low Arctic wet tundra of Holarctic: Yamal Pen. (north-west Siberia) east to Chukotskiy Pen., south to Anadyr, including New Siberian and Wrangel is. (north-east Russia); west and north Alaska through north-east Canada, including Arctic islands from Banks to Devon and Southampton (north-east Canada)
Non-breeding range: AU, Southern Cone : mainly wet grassland, wetland edge of subtropical and temperate zone; few to south-east Australia, New Zealand, Chatham Is. (east of North I., New Zealand); most to Peru, Bolivia, and south Brazil south to Tierra del Fuego; a few winter farther north; prone to extreme vagrancy

03 · When