Western Sandpiper (Calidris mauri)

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

Return to Eastern Shorebirds

Summer Plumage

Winter Plumage

Color Photographs: © by and courtesty of John Cassady

Western Sandpiper (Calidris mauri)

Identification: Length from tip of bill to tip of tail 6.5 inches.

Summer Plumage: Back and head gray-brown. Crown rusty brown and wings with rusty-brown patches. Head with vague light stripe over the eye and usually with a vague rusty-brown patch below and behind the eye. Bill black, narrow, slightly down-turned at the apex. Undersides white with darker spots along the sides. Legs black.

Winter Plumage: Similar in shape and build to the summer plumage, but lighter gray without the pronounced mottling of the summer plumage and without rusty brown markings.

Similar Species:  The Western Sandpiper is similar in shape and build to the Semipalmated Sandpiper. The summer plumage Semipalmated Sandpiper lacks the rusty brown crown and wing patches of the Western Sandpiper. The winter plumage birds of these two species are almost identical except for the slightly longer and apically down-turned bill of the Western Sandpiper. The Least Sandpiper has yellow legs. The White-rumped Sandpiper has a white patch on the rump and the wing and tail feathers appear to be elongate and sharp. Baird's Sandpiper has a brown tint and dark streaks on both the sides and the breast, not just on the sides.

Breeding Range (see map below): The Western Sandpiper breeds along the northern and western coasts of Alaska.

Overwintering Range:  This species overwinters along the coasts of North America and southward into South America.

Habitat: This species breeds and overwinters along shorelines and mudflats and is found in wet meadows during migration.

Food: Aquatic invertebrates.

Behavior: The Western Sandpiper is one more of the small shorebirds that follows the waves in and out at the beach. They are often found in the company of the Semipalmated Sandpiper as well as other sandpipers of the genus Calidris. The voice is a soft cheep.

Reproduction:  The clutch consists of 4 red-brown-spotted cream colored eggs. The eggs are laid in a ground depression in the tundra.