Pectoral Sandpiper
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| Pectoral Sandpiper | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Adult brooding hatchlings
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| Calidris melanotos Vieillot, 1819 |
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Actodromas maculata |
The Pectoral Sandpiper, Calidris melanotos, is a small wader. It is sometimes separated with other "stint" sandpipers in Erolia. These may or may not be a good monophyletic group depending on the placement of the phylogenetically enigmatic Curlew Sandpiper, though in any case the genus name Ereunetes was established before Erolia.
"Cox's Sandpiper" ("Calidris" × paramelanotos) is a stereotyped hybrid between this species and the Curlew Sandpiper. This does not prove a particularly close relationship between these two species, as far more distantly related waders have successfully hybridized.
[edit] Description
This bird is similar to its relative, the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, which breeds entirely within the Pectoral's Asian range. It is a largish calidrid, with a grey-brown back, brownest in the summer male, and greyest in winter. Pectoral Sandpiper has a grey breast, sharply demarcated at its lower edge, which gives this species its English name. The legs are yellowish.
The juveniles are more brightly patterned above with rufous colouration and white mantle stripes.
This species differs from the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper in its breast pattern, weaker supercilium and greyer crown.
[edit] Distribution and ecology
It breeds in the boggy tundra of northeast Asia and North America. On migration and in winter, the Pectoral Sandpiper is typically found in fresh water habitats. These birds forage on grasslands and mudflats, picking up food by sight, sometimes by probing. They mainly eat arthropods and other invertebrates.
It is a very long-distance migrant. The American and most of the Asian birds winter in South America, but some Asian breeders winter in southern and Australia and New Zealand. There is data indicating that the migration might be affected by global warming, as is suspected for many Arctic-breeding birds: 100 years ago, migrating Pectoral Sandpipers were observed to pass through northern Ohio in early-mid May and again in late August; today, the bulk of the northward migration takes place in April already, and most birds do not return until mid-September.[1]
This species occurs as a regular migrant to western Europe, and is not considered as a rarity in Ireland or Great Britain. Many of the birds occurring in Western Europe may be on a regular migration from Asian breeding grounds to winter in Southern Africa.[2] September 2003 saw a record influx to those two countries, with 40 found in Ireland, and 150 in Great Britain. While the Pectoral Sandpiper has not been recorded as breeding species in Europe, it has been found in Scotland in suitable breeding habitat in summer.[3] On the US Pacific coast, such stagings of migrant flocks appear to be rarer.[4]
This species nests on the ground, laying four eggs. The male has a display involving puffing up his breast, which has a fat sac in the breeding season to enhance his performance.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Henninger (1906), OOS (2004)
- ^ Lees & Gilroy (2004)
- ^ Vittery (1997)
- ^ For example the species was described as "unusual" in San Mateo County, California in the late 19th century, despite nearby San Francisco Bay offering excellent stopover habitat (Littlejohn 1916).
[edit] References
- BirdLife International (2004). Calidris melanotos. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 9 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
- Hayman, Peter; Marchant, John & Prater, Tony (1986): Shorebirds: an identification guide to the waders of the world. Houghton Mifflin, Boston. ISBN 0-395-60237-8
- Henninger, W.F. (1906): A preliminary list of the birds of Seneca County, Ohio. Wilson Bull. 18(2): 47-60. DjVu fulltext PDF fulltext
- Lees, A.C. & Gilroy, J.G. (2004): Pectoral Sandpipers in Europe: vagrancy patterns and the influx of 2003. Brit. Birds 97(12): 638–646. HTML abstract
- Littlejohn, Chase (1916): Some unusual records for San Mateo County, California. Abstract in: Cooper Club: Minutes of Cooper Club Meetings. Condor 18(1): 38-40. DjVu fulltext PDF fulltext
- Ohio Ornithological Society (OOS) (2004): Annotated Ohio state checklist. Version of April 2004. PDF fulltext
- Vittery, Alan (1997): The Birds of Sutherland. Colin Baxter Photography. ISBN 1900455188
