Red-necked Stint

Calidris ruficollis (Pallas, 1776)

13–17 cmLength31 cmWingspan27 gWeight

This is one of the smallest waders, with a slender, dark bill, dark legs and feet, and rather quick movements.

Most records: Australia, China, Thailand

Looks like Little Stint

Near Threatened

How to identify

Field marks

Bill long, slender and dark
Legs and feet dark
Breast orange and unmarked in breeding plumage, with dark markings along its lower edge
White V-shaped marking on the back in breeding plumage

Male, female and young

Compared with juvenile Little Stint, juvenile has more contrasting upper back plumage and weaker white lines on the back.

Voice

A harsh “stit”.

Similar species

Little Stint

Very similar and once treated as the same species; difficult to separate in winter plumage, but Red-necked Stint has shorter legs and feet and longer wings.

Where and when it's recorded

Red-necked Stint has been recorded at 714 of the 8,171 birding hotspots we track, in 43 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

Western Treatment PlantAustralia7,600 records
Cairns EsplanadeAustralia3,127 records
Pak Thale Nature ReserveThailand2,358 records

More places

Western Treatment Plant – T Section PondsAustralia1,408 records
Mai Po Nature ReserveHong Kong (China)1,330 records
Long Reef Aquatic ReserveAustralia1,289 records
St. Paul IslandUnited States1,178 records
Lake WollumboolaAustralia1,043 records
Nanhui DongtanChina1,028 records
Stockyard PointAustralia1,023 records

Countries and regions with the most records

Australia China Thailand United States New Zealand Japan Philippines Malaysia

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 red-necked stint or rufous-necked stint (Calidris ruficollis) is a small migratory wader that breeds in northeast Russia and spends the non-breeding season along the coastlines of Southeast Asia and Australasia.

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

Questions

How big is the Red-necked Stint?

The Red-necked Stint is about 13–17 cm long, with a wingspan of 31 cm and weighs around 27 g.

Where does the Red-necked Stint live?

Its breeding range: Palearctic: coastal low Arctic to subarctic tundra of north-central, northeastern Siberia: Taymyr Peninsula (north-central Siberia) east to Chukotskiy Peninsula and south to northern Kamchatka Peninsula (northeastern Russia). It is most often recorded in Australia, China and Thailand.

Is the Red-necked Stint endangered?

The IUCN Red List classifies the Red-necked Stint as Near Threatened.

What does the Red-necked Stint eat?

Main food: Fish, shrimp & shellfish.

What family is the Red-necked Stint in?

It belongs to the family Sandpipers, Snipes (Scolopacidae), order Charadriiformes.

At a glance

Length: 13–17 cm
Wingspan: 31 cm
Weight: 27 g
Habitat: Grassland
Diet: Fish, shrimp & shellfish
Lifestyle: Active on the ground
Migration: Migratory
Conservation: Near Threatened

More measurements

Wing: 100 mm
Tail: 44 mm
Bill: 19 mm
Tarsus: 19 mm

Averages from the AVONET dataset; length from field guides where available.

Range

Palearctic: coastal low Arctic to subarctic tundra of north-central, northeastern Siberia: Taymyr Peninsula (north-central Siberia) east to Chukotskiy Peninsula and south to northern Kamchatka Peninsula (northeastern Russia)

Breeding range, IOC World Bird List 15.2