Semipalmated Sandpiper

Calidris pusilla (Linnaeus, 1766)

Semipalmated Sandpiper, Calidris pusilla, breeds across the Arctic and subarctic tundra of North America and the far north-east of the Palearctic, and spends the non-breeding season on coastal shores in the Neotropics, the Caribbean and parts of South America. It is a small sandpiper with black legs and a short, sturdy, straight dark bill. The upperparts are dark grey-brown, the underparts white, and the head and neck are washed pale grey-brown. It can be hard to tell from other very small shorebirds, especially the Western Sandpiper.

Order

Charadriiformes

Family

Scolopacidae — Sandpipers, Snipes

Breeding range

North America, Palearctic: low (locally high) Arctic to subarctic tundra of far ne Palearctic and Nearctic: e Chukotskiy Pen. (ne Siberia), w, n Alaska and n Canada including most of mainland Nunavut, around Hudson and James bays and e to n Labrador, and s Canadian Arctic islands from Banks to Baffin (ne Canada)

Nonbreeding range

MA, SA, Caribbean : subtropical to tropical coastal Neotropics: from Isthmus of Tehuantepec (sw Mexico) to far n Chile and Galápagos (e Pacific), throughout Caribbean and from n Yucatan Pen. to ne Brazil (w Atlantic)