Sharp-tailed Sandpiper

Calidris acuminata (Horsfield, 1821)

≈22 cmLength40 cmWingspan66 gWeight

It is a small to medium-sized sandpiper with a rounded belly, chestnut crown, straight bill and olive to yellow legs.

Most records: Australia, China, United States

Looks like Pectoral Sandpiper, Long-toed Stint

Vulnerable

How to identify

Field marks

Crown chestnut with a rufous eyestripe
Upperparts mottled chestnut-brown; feather tips and centers dark
Bill straight, dark gray to black
Legs olive to yellow

Male, female and young

Breeding plumage brighter than winter plumage; in fall and winter, juvenile is brighter than adult, with a chestnut crown contrasting strongly with white back stripes and a pale yellow breast.

Similar species

Pectoral Sandpiper

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper lacks a sharply defined breast-band and has “>”-shaped markings on the flanks; its supercilium is more conspicuous and crown more chestnut than in Pectoral Sandpiper.

Long-toed Stint

Some resemblance to Long-toed Stint, but Sharp-tailed Sandpiper is much larger.

Where and when it's recorded

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper has been recorded at 674 of the 8,171 birding hotspots we track, in 54 countries and regions.

Records by month Southern Hemisphere

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

Countries and regions with the most records

Australia China United States New Zealand Canada Philippines U.S. Outlying Islands Japan

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 sharp-tailed sandpiper (Calidris acuminata) is a small-medium migratory wader or shorebird, found mostly in Siberia during the summer breeding period (June to August) and Australia for wintering (September to March).

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

Questions

How big is the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper?

The Sharp-tailed Sandpiper is about ≈22 cm long, with a wingspan of 40 cm and weighs around 66 g.

Where does the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper live?

Its breeding range: Palearctic: low Arctic to subarctic tundra of northeastern Palearctic: Lena to Kolyma rivers (northeastern Siberia). It is most often recorded in Australia, China and United States.