The Terek sandpiper (Xenus cinereus) is a small migratory Palearctic wader species and is the only member of the genus Xenus. It is named after the Terek River which flows into the west of the Caspian Sea, as it was first observed around this area.
Taxonomy
The Terek sandpiper was formally described and illustrated in 1775 by the German naturalist Johann Anton Güldenstädt under the binomial name Scolopax cinerea. He reported that he had seen pairs breeding at the mouth of the Terek River where it flows into the Caspian Sea. It is now the only species placed in the genus Xenus that was introduced in 1829 by the German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup. The genus name Xenus is from Ancient Greek xenos meaning "stranger"; the specific epithet cinereus is Latin for "ash-grey" from cinis, cineris, "ashes". The species is considered to be monotypic, no subspecies are recognised.
It feeds in a distinctive and very active way, chasing insects and other mobile prey, and sometimes then running to the water's edge to wash its catch.
It lays three or four eggs in a lined ground scrape.
The Terek sandpiper likes to associate with ruddy turnstones (Arenaria interpres), smallish calidrids, and Charadrius (but maybe not Pluvialis) plovers; a vagrant bird at Paraty (Rio de Janeiro state) was noted to pair up with a spotted sandpiper (Actitis macularius).
External links
- Terek sandpiper species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds