Purple Sandpiper (Calidris maritima)

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A Field Guide to Eastern Birds. by Roger Tory Peterson.

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Winter Plumage

Winter Plumage

Color Photograph: © by and courtesy of John Cassady

Purple Sandpiper (Calidris maritima)

Identification: Length from tip of bill to tip of tail 9 inches.

Summer Plumage: A large sandpiper-like bird with a dark, dull, purplish brown coloration. Head with a dull, white band over the eye and a dark line through the eye. Side of the head dirty white with vertical darker streaks. Bill dull straight, dull orange, and with a black apex. Breast dull white heavily streaked with dark gray. Abdomen white, but sides with with dark gray spots and streaks. Feet orange to yellow-orange.

Winter Plumage: Similar to the summer plumage, but side of head completely suffused with gray-brown. Throat and neck suffused with gray-brown.

Similar Species:  The dull slate gray to purplish gray coloration of the Purple Sandpiper combined with its large size, and orange feet and bill will easily separate it from other eastern sandpipers.

Breeding Range (see map below): The Purple Sandpiper has a restricted breeding range on the tundra of the far northern Canadian arctic islands. The species is also found in northern Europe and Asia.

Overwintering Range:  This species overwinters along the Atlantic Coast from Newfoundland in the north, southward to the Carolinas.

Habitat: The species is found near the coastlines of the tundra during the breeding season. Overwintering birds occur on rocky coasts and land spits.

Food:  Marine mollusks such as marine snails, mollusks, and periwinkles.

Behavior: The Purple Sandpiper spends its time hunting for mollusks on rocky oceanic shores. The species is among the least shy of the sandpipers and can sometimes be approached quite closely. The voice is a twit or twit-twit.

Reproduction:  The clutch consists of brown-spotted tan eggs. The eggs are laid in a ground depression lined with grass and leaves.