Stilt Sandpiper

Calidris himantopus (Bonaparte, 1826)

Stilt Sandpiper, Calidris himantopus, breeds across the Arctic tundra and taiga edge of North America, from the North Slope of Alaska and northern Canada to southern Victoria Island, with local populations on the coasts of Hudson and James bays. Outside the breeding season it ranges through coastal and inland Mexico, the West Indies, Central America mainly along the Pacific coast, and coastal South America as far as Peru and northern Brazil, reaching the pampas of north-central Argentina. It is a small shorebird with a long, only slightly curved bill, greenish-yellow legs, and no wingbar in flight.

Order

Charadriiformes

Family

Scolopacidae — Sandpipers, Snipes

Breeding range

North America: high and low Arctic tundra to taiga edge of n Nearctic: North Slope of Alaska and n Canada to s Victoria I. (nc Canada); also locally w coasts of Hudson and James bays

Nonbreeding range

coastal and inland Mexico and throughout the West Indies; in Central America mainly along Pacific coast; coastal South America to Peru and n Brazil, and in pampas of nc Argentina