Actitis
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 Common Sandpiper
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A. hypoleucos |
Actitis, is a small genus of waders, comprising just two very similar species of bird. They are
- Common Sandpiper, Actitis hypoleucos, of Europe and Asia, and
- Spotted Sandpiper, Actitis macularia of North America
They form a distinct lineage in the shank and tattler clade (Pereira & Baker, 2005) and are not very closely related to the calidrid sandpipers (Thomas et al, 2004). A prehistoric relative, Actitis balcanica, was described from Late Pliocene fossils found at Varshets, Bulgaria.
These are both small migratory waders, greyish brown on top and white underneath, with a distinctive stiff-winged flight low over the water. The plumages are very similar, apart from Spotted Sandpiper’s distinctive breeding plumage, and suspected out-of-range vagrants must be carefully observed to clinch identification.
Both species have short yellow or yellowish legs and a medium bill. These are not gregarious birds and are seldom seen in large flocks.
They nest on the ground, and their habitat is near fresh water. These birds forage on the ground or in water, picking up food by sight. They may also catch insects in flight. They eat insects, crustaceans and other invertebrates.
[edit] References
- Pereira, Sérgio Luiz & Baker, Alan J. (2005): Multiple Gene Evidence for Parallel Evolution and Retention of Ancestral Morphological States in the Shanks (Charadriiformes: Scolopacidae). Condor 107(3): 514–526. DOI: 10.1650/0010-5422(2005)107[0514:MGEFPE]2.0.CO;2 HTML abstract
- Thomas, Gavin H.; Wills, Matthew A. & Székely, Tamás (2004): A supertree approach to shorebird phylogeny. BMC Evol. Biol. 4: 28. DOI:10.1186/1471-2148-4-28 PDF fulltext Supplementary Material
