Pectoral Sandpiper

Calidris melanotos (Vieillot, 1819)

Pectoral Sandpiper Calidris melanotos breeds in the Arctic of North America and the Palearctic, from north-west Siberia across to Chukotka and from Alaska through north-east Canada, including several Arctic islands. Outside the breeding season it moves to South America and Oceania, using mainly wet grassland and the edges of wetlands in subtropical and temperate areas. It is a long-distance migrant and is prone to extreme vagrancy. Its nest is a deep scrape in the ground with a thick lining, and the female lays four eggs.

Order

Charadriiformes

Family

Scolopacidae — Sandpipers, Snipes

Breeding range

North America, Palearctic: high to low Arctic wet tundra of Holarctic: Yamal Pen. (nw Siberia) e to Chukotskiy Pen., s to Anadyr, including New Siberian and Wrangel is. (ne Russia); w, n Alaska through ne Canada, including Arctic islands from Banks to Devon and Southampton (ne Canada)

Nonbreeding range

AU, Southern Cone : mainly wet grassland, wetland edge of subtropical and temperate zone; few to se Australia, New Zealand, Chatham Is. (e of North I., New Zealand); most to Peru, Bolivia, and s Brazil s to Tierra del Fuego; a few winter farther north; prone to extreme vagrancy