Sandpiper

Sandpipers
Dunlin (Calidris alpina)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Subclass: Neornithes
Infraclass: Neoaves
Order: Charadriiformes
Suborder: Scolopaci
Family: Scolopacidae
Rafinesque, 1815
Genera
  • Actitis
  • Aphriza
  • Arenaria
  • Bartramia
  • Calidris
  • Catoptrophorus
  • Coenocorypha
  • Heteroscelus
  • Eurynorhynchus
  • Gallinago
  • Limicola
  • Limnodromus
  • Limosa
  • Lymnocryptes
  • Numenius
  • Phalaropus
  • Philomachus
  • Prosobonia
  • Scolopax
  • Tringa
  • Tryngites
  • Xenus

The sandpipers are a large family, Scolopacidae, of waders or shorebirds. They include many species called sandpipers, as well as those called by names such as curlew and snipe. The majority of these species eat small invertebrates picked out of the mud or soil. Different lengths of bills enable different species to feed in the same habitat, particularly on the coast, without direct competition for food.

Contents

Biology

Waders have long bodies and legs, and narrow wings. Most species have a narrow bill, but otherwise the form and length are quite variable. The bills are sensitive, allowing the birds to feel the mud and sand as they probe for food. Waders range in size from the Least Sandpiper, at around 11 centimetres in length, to the Eastern Curlew, at 66 centimetres in length. They generally have dull plumage, with cryptic brown, grey, or streaked patterns, although some display brighter colours during the breeding season[1].

Most species nest in open areas, and defend their territories with aerial displays. The nest itself is a simple scrape in the ground, in which the bird typically lays three or four eggs. The young of most species are precocial[1].

Taxonomy

This large family is often further subdivided into groups of similar birds. These groups do not necessarily consist of a single genus, but as presented here they do form distinct monophyletic evolutionary lineages[2]. The groups, with species numbers in parentheses, are:

Genus Numenius (8 species, of which 1-2 recently extinct)
Genus Bartramia (monotypic)
Genus Limosa (4 species)
Genus Limnodromus (3 species)
Genera Coenocorypha, Lymnocryptes, Gallinago and Scolopax (nearly 30 species, plus some 6 extinct)
Genus Phalaropus (3 species)
Genera Xenus, Actitis, and Tringa which now includes Catoptrophorus and Heteroscelus (16 species)
Genus Prosobonia (1 extant species, 3-5 extinct)
Roughly 25 species, mostly in Calidris which might be split up into several genera. Other genera currently accepted are Aphriza, Eurynorhynchus, Limicola, Tryngites, and Philomachus, in addition to the 2 Arenaria turnstones.

Evolution

The early fossil record is very bad for a group that was probably present at the non-avian dinosaur's extinction. "Totanus" teruelensis (Late Miocene of Los Mansuetos (Spain) is sometimes considered a scolopacid - maybe a shank - but may well be a larid; little is known of it.

Paractitis has been named from the Early Oligocene of Sasketchewan (Canada), while Mirolia is known from the Middle Miocene at Deiningen in the Nördlinger Ries (Germany). Most living genera would seem to have evolved throughout the Oligocene to Miocene with the waders perhaps a bit later; see the genus accounts for the fossil record.

In addition there are some indeterminable remains that might belong to extant genera or their extinct relatives:

Bristle-thighed Curlew (Numenius tahitiensis, right) and Ruddy Turnstones (Arenaria interpres)

Common Snipe (Gallinago gallinago)

Greenshank (Tringa nebularia)

Preening male Ruff (Philomachus pugnax)

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Harrison, Colin J.O. (1991). Forshaw, Joseph. ed. Encyclopaedia of Animals: Birds. London: Merehurst Press. pp. 103–105. ISBN 1-85391-186-0. 
  2. ↑ Thomas et al. (2004)
  3. ↑ A distal right tarsometatarsus of a bird roughly similar to a Pectoral Sandpiper. Probably calidrid or basal to them, somewhat reminiscent of turnstones: Wetmore (1937).

References

External links