Curlew Sandpiper

How to identify

Field marks

1. Bill black, long and decurved
2. Large white patch on the rump; white band on the upperwing in flight
3. Upperparts dark gray with markings and underparts brick-red in the breeding season
4. Winter plumage gray above and white below, with a distinct white supercilium

Male, female and young

Male is more intensely rusty in the breeding season; juvenile has a gray-brown back, white belly and peach wash on the breast.

Voice

Often gives a single chirp with a dip in pitch in the middle on take-off; the alarm call on the breeding grounds is a repeated “whik, whik, whik”.

Similar species

Red Knot

Red Knot also has a red belly in breeding plumage, but is larger, with paler orange-yellow underparts, short greenish legs and feet, and a thicker bill.

Dunlin

Curlew Sandpiper has a longer, decurved bill, longer neck and legs and feet, and a white rump.

Stilt Sandpiper

Similar in non-breeding plumage; Stilt Sandpiper lacks the white stripe on the upperwing, has longer, yellow legs and feet, and a flatter head.

Where and when it's recorded

Curlew Sandpiper has been recorded at 1,767 of the 8,171 birding hotspots we track, in 147 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

To protect this bird from disturbance, we don't list exact sites.

Countries and regions with the most records

AustraliaSpainUnited KingdomChinaPortugalThailandSouth AfricaIsrael

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The curlew sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea) is a small wader. It is a long-distance migrant, breeding in the bogs and coastal lowlands of the Siberian Arctic, arriving there in June and staying until August or September. After the breeding season, it migrates south to spend the winter in Africa and along the coasts of Oceania and southern Eurasia, occupying tidal mudflats and saltpans.

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

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