Rock Sandpiper

Calidris ptilocnemis (Coues, 1873)

Rock Sandpiper, Calidris ptilocnemis, is a sandpiper of the far northern Pacific, breeding from the Chukchi and Kamchatka regions through the Aleutian and Bering Sea islands to western Alaska. It also nests on the Pribilofs, Hall and St. Matthew islands, and the south of Kamchatka and the Kuril and Commander islands. In winter it moves to rocky, ice-free coasts, reaching Hokkaido and central California. It is a hardy bird of tundra and shorelines, with short yellow legs, a medium thin dark bill, a dark upper body, white underparts, grey on the breast and a black rump.

Order

Charadriiformes

Family

Scolopacidae — Sandpipers, Snipes

Breeding range

Palearctic, North America: coastal low Arctic to subarctic tundra of far n Pacific: e Chukotskiy Pen. to (disjunctly) s Kamchatka, Commander and (perhaps) n Kuril is. (e Russia), Aleutian and Bering Sea is., w Alaska from Seward Pen. to Gulf of Alaska is.

Nonbreeding range

rocky subarctic to temperate coasts: Hokkaido (n Japan, w North Pacific; rare) to c California (e North Pacific)