Sandpiper - WikiHQ

Scolopacidae is a large family of shorebirds, or waders, which mainly includes many species known as sandpipers, but also others such as woodcocks, curlews, and snipes. Most of these species eat small invertebrates picked out of the mud or soil. There is no evidence that different lengths of bills enable multiple species to feed in the same habitat, particularly on the coast, without direct competition for food. On sandy beaches, species with different bill lengths feed on the only abundant invertebrate, such as mole crabs Emerita.

Sandpipers have long bodies and legs, and narrow wings. Most species have a narrow bill, but the form and length are variable. They are small to medium-sized birds, measuring in length. The bills are sensitive, allowing the birds to feel the mud and sand as they probe for food. They generally have dull plumage, with cryptic brown, grey, or streaked patterns, although some display brighter colours during the breeding season.

Most species nest in open areas and defend their territories with aerial displays. The nest itself is a simple scrape in the ground, in which the bird typically lays three or four eggs. The young of most species are precocial. The family contains 98 extant or recently extinct species divided into 15 genera. For more details, see the article List of sandpiper species.

The following genus-level cladogram of the Scolopacidae is based on a study by David Černý and Rossy Natale that was published in 2022.

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!Genus

!Living and recently extinct species

| 220px ||Bartramia ||

Upland sandpiper, Bartramia longicauda

| 220px ||Numenius ||

Bristle-thighed curlew, Numenius tahitiensis
Eurasian whimbrel, Numenius phaeopus
Hudsonian whimbrel, Numenius hudsonicus
Little curlew, Numenius minutus
†? Eskimo curlew, Numenius borealis (last seen in 1987)
Long-billed curlew, Numenius americanus
Far Eastern curlew, Numenius madagascariensis
† Slender-billed curlew, Numenius tenuirostris (last seen in 1995)
Eurasian curlew, Numenius arquata

| 220px ||Limosa ||

Bar-tailed godwit, Limosa lapponica
Black-tailed godwit, Limosa limosa
Hudsonian godwit, Limosa haemastica
Marbled godwit, Limosa fedoa

| 220px ||Limnodromus ||

Asian dowitcher, Limnodromus semipalmatus
Long-billed dowitcher, Limnodromus scolopaceus
Short-billed dowitcher, Limnodromus griseus

| 220px ||Lymnocryptes ||

Jack snipe, Lymnocryptes minimus

| 220px ||Scolopax ||

American woodcock, Scolopax minor (large North American range)
Eurasian woodcock, Scolopax rusticola (large Eurasian range)
Amami woodcock, Scolopax mira (endemic to the Amami Islands in Japan)
Bukidnon woodcock, Scolopax bukidnonensis (endemic to Luzon and Mindanao in the Philippines)
Javan woodcock, Scolopax saturata (endemic to Sumatra and Java in Indonesia)
New Guinea woodcock, Scolopax rosenbergii (endemic to New Guinea)
Sulawesi woodcock, Scolopax celebensis (endemic to Sulawesi in Indonesia)
Moluccan woodcock, Scolopax rochussenii (endemic to the Maluku Islands in Indonesia)

| 220px ||Coenocorypha ||

† North Island snipe, Coenocorypha barrierensis Oliver, 1955 – also known as the Little Barrier Snipe
† South Island snipe, Coenocorypha iredalei Rothschild, 1921 – also known as the Stewart Island Snipe
Chatham snipe, Coenocorypha pusilla (Buller, 1869) – Chatham Islands
Snares snipe, Coenocorypha huegeli (Tristram, 1893) – Snares Islands
Subantarctic snipe, Coenocorypha aucklandica (G. R. Gray, 1845)
Auckland snipe, C. a. aucklandica (G. R. Gray, 1845) – Auckland Islands
Antipodes snipe, C. a. meinertzhagenae Rothschild, 1927 – Antipodes Islands
Campbell snipe, C. a. perseverance Miskelly & Baker, 2010 – Campbell Island
† Forbes's snipe, Coenocorypha chathamica (Forbes, 1893) – Chatham Islands
† Viti Levu snipe, Coenocorypha miratropica Worthy, 2003 – Fiji
† New Caledonian snipe, Coenocorypha neocaledonica Worthy et al., 2013 – New Caledonia
† Norfolk snipe, Coenocorypha sp. – Norfolk Island

| 220px ||Gallinago ||

Imperial snipe, Gallinago imperialis
Jameson's snipe, Gallinago jamesoni
Fuegian snipe, Gallinago stricklandii
Solitary snipe, Gallinago solitaria
Wood snipe, Gallinago nemoricola
Great snipe, Gallinago media
Swinhoe's snipe, Gallinago megala
Pin-tailed snipe, Gallinago stenura
Latham's snipe, Gallinago hardwickii
African snipe, Gallinago nigripennis
Common snipe, Gallinago gallinago
Wilson's snipe, Gallinago delicata
Giant snipe, Gallinago undulata
Noble snipe, Gallinago nobilis
Puna snipe, Gallinago andina
Madagascar snipe, Gallinago macrodactyla
Pantanal snipe, Gallinago paraguaiae
Magellanic snipe, Gallinago magellanica

| 220px ||Phalaropus ||

Wilson's phalarope, Phalaropus tricolor
Red phalarope, Phalaropus fulicarius
Red-necked phalarope, Phalaropus lobatus

| 220px ||Xenus ||

Terek sandpiper, Xenus cinereus

| 220px ||Actitis ||

Common sandpiper, Actitis hypoleucos (of Eurasia)
Spotted sandpiper, Actitis macularius (of North America)

| 220px ||Tringa ||

Green sandpiper, Tringa ochropus
Solitary sandpiper, Tringa solitaria
Grey-tailed tattler, Tringa brevipes (formerly Heteroscelus brevipes)
Wandering tattler, Tringa incana (formerly Heteroscelus incanus)
Marsh sandpiper, Tringa stagnatilis
Wood sandpiper, Tringa glareola
Common redshank, Tringa totanus
Lesser yellowlegs, Tringa flavipes
Nordmann's greenshank, Tringa guttifer
Willet, Tringa semipalmata (formerly Catoptrophorus semipalmatus)
Spotted redshank, Tringa erythropus
Common greenshank, Tringa nebularia
Greater yellowlegs, Tringa melanoleuca

| 220px ||Prosobonia ||

† Kiritimati sandpiper, Prosobonia cancellata
† Tahiti sandpiper, Prosobonia leucoptera
† Moorea sandpiper, Prosobonia ellisi
Tuamotu sandpiper, Prosobonia parvirostris

| 220px ||Arenaria ||

Ruddy turnstone, Arenaria interpres
Black turnstone, Arenaria melanocephala

| 220px ||Calidris ||

Great knot, Calidris tenuirostris
Red knot, Calidris canutus
Surfbird, Calidris virgata
Ruff, Calidris pugnax
Broad-billed sandpiper, Calidris falcinellus
Sharp-tailed sandpiper, Calidris acuminata
Stilt sandpiper, Calidris himantopus
Curlew sandpiper, Calidris ferruginea
Temminck's stint, Calidris temminckii
Long-toed stint, Calidris subminuta
Red-necked stint, Calidris ruficollis
Spoon-billed sandpiper, Calidris pygmaea
Buff-breasted sandpiper, Calidris subruficollis
Sanderling, Calidris alba
Dunlin, Calidris alpina
Purple sandpiper, Calidris maritima
Rock sandpiper, Calidris ptilocnemis
Baird's sandpiper, Calidris bairdii
Little stint, Calidris minuta
Least sandpiper, Calidris minutilla
White-rumped sandpiper, Calidris fuscicollis
Pectoral sandpiper, Calidris melanotos
Western sandpiper, Calidris mauri
Semipalmated sandpiper, Calidris pusilla

thumb|[[Sanderling|Calidris alba in Kanagawa, Japan]]

Evolution

The early fossil record is scant for a group that was probably present at the non-avian dinosaurs' extinction. "Totanus" teruelensis (Late Miocene of Los Mansuetos (Spain) is sometimes considered a scolopacid – maybe a shank – but may well be a larid; little is known of it.

Paractitis has been named from the Early Oligocene of Saskatchewan (Canada), while Mirolia is known from the Middle Miocene at Deiningen in the Nördlinger Ries (Germany). Most living genera would seem to have evolved throughout the Oligocene to Miocene with the waders perhaps a bit later; see the genus accounts for the fossil record.

In addition there are some indeterminable remains that might belong to extant genera or their extinct relatives:

Scolopacidae gen. et sp. indet. (Middle Miocene of Františkovy Lázně, Czech Republic – Late Miocene of Kohfidisch, Austria)
Scolopacidae gen. et sp. indet. (Edson Early Pliocene of Sherman County, Kansas, United States)

Description

thumb|The [[least sandpiper is the smallest species of sandpiper]]

The sandpipers exhibit considerable range in size and appearance, the wide range of body forms reflecting a wide range of ecological niches. Sandpipers range in size from the least sandpiper, at as little as and in length, to the Far Eastern curlew, at up to in length, and the Eurasian curlew, at up to . Within species there is considerable variation in patterns of sexual dimorphism. Males are larger than females in ruffs and several sandpipers, but are smaller than females in the knots, curlews, phalaropes and godwits. The sexes are similarly sized in the snipes, woodcock and tringine sandpipers. Compared to the other large family of wading birds, the plovers (Charadriidae), they tend to have smaller eyes, more slender heads, and longer thinner bills. Some are quite long-legged, and most species have three forward pointing toes with a smaller hind toe (the exception is the sanderling, which lacks a hind toe). Like all birds, the bills of sandpipers are capable of cranial kinesis, literally being able to move the bones of the skull (other than the obvious movement of the lower jaw) and specifically bending the upper jaw without opening the entire jaw, an act known as rhynchokinesis. It has been hypothesized this helps when probing by allowing the bill to be partly opened with less force and improving manipulation of prey items in the substrate. Rhynchokinesis is also used by sandpipers feeding on prey in water to catch and manipulate prey.

Distribution, habitat, and movements

thumb|Sandpipers spending the non-breeding season in [[Roebuck Bay, Western Australia]]

The sandpipers have a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring across most of the world's land surfaces except for Antarctica and the driest deserts. A majority of the family breed at moderate to high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, in fact accounting for the most northerly breeding birds in the world. Only a few species breed in tropical regions, ten of which are snipes and woodcocks and the remaining species being the unusual Tuamotu sandpiper, which breeds in French Polynesia (although prior to the arrival of humans in the Pacific there were several other closely related species of Polynesian sandpiper).

Breeding

Many sandpipers form monogamous pairs, but some sandpipers have female-only parental care, some male-only parental care, some sequential polyandry and other compete for the mate on the lek. Sandpipers lay three or four eggs into the nest, which is usually a vague depression or scrape in the open ground, scarcely lined with soft vegetation. In species where only a single parent incubates the eggs, during the night the parent sits on the eggs nearly continuously and then during the warmest part of a day leaves the nest for short feeding bouts. Chicks hatch after about three weeks of incubation and are able to walk and forage within a few hours of hatching. A single parent or both parents guide and brood the chicks.