Baird's Sandpiper

Baird's Sandpiper, adult showing early Prebasic molt on breast sides. Myer's Point, Cayuga Lake/Lansing, Tompkins Co., NY; 2 August 2005.

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Baird's Sandpiper, juvenile; Ventura, CA. August

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Reproduction
8. Conservation Status
9. Other Names

The long-winged Baird's Sandpiper prefers drier areas to forage than most other similar sandpipers.

Cool Facts

• The migration of the Baird's Sandpiper is long but rapid. After departing high-arctic breeding grounds and staging in southern Canada and the northern United States, most individuals travel 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) or more directly to northern South America, some going on as far as Tierra del Fuego. Many individuals complete the entire 15,000 kilometer (9,300 mile) journey in as few as 5 weeks.

• The female Baird's Sandpiper lays a clutch of eggs that is up to 120% of her body mass in four days, shortly after arriving in the Arctic, with essentially no stored fat.

Description

• Size: 14-18 cm (6-7 in)
• Wingspan: 35-38 cm (14-15 in)
• Weight: 27-63 g (0.95-2.22 ounces)

Small to medium-sized sandpiper. Short neck. Moderately long, slightly drooping bill. Moderately long legs. Long wings extend past end of tail on resting bird. Dark center of rump and tail. Fairly distinct chest markings. Back scaly, with whitish edges to dark back feathers in some plumages.

Sex Differences

Sexes look alike.

Immature

Juvenile similar to adult, but with more scaly pattern on back.

Similar Species

• White-rumped Sandpiper very similar in size, shape, and markings, but is usually grayer, with less distinct markings across chest, less scaly back pattern, and a bold white rump.
• Dunlin larger and with a more down-curved bill.
• Pectoral Sandpiper larger, with more distinct chest band, and with two thin white stripes down back.

Sound

Call a short "jeerc."

Range

Range Map

© 2004 Cornell Lab of Ornithology

About the map

Summer Range

Breeds across Alaska and very northern Canada to Greenland. Also in northeastern Siberia.

Winter Range

Winters inland in South America.

Habitat

Breeds in dry coastal and alpine tundra. Migrates and winters along mudflats, estuaries, grassy marshes, and dry grassy areas near lakes and ponds, rarely dry pastures and prairies away from water.

Reproduction

Clutch Size

Condition at Hatching

Active and covered with down.

Conservation Status

No evidence of significant population trends.

Other Names

Bécasseau de Baird, Maubéche de Baird (French)
Correlimos de Baird, Playerito de Baird (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

Moskoff, W., and R. Montgomerie. 2002. Baird?s Sandpiper (Calidris bairdii). In The Birds of North America, No. 661 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.