Sanderling

This article is about the bird. For other uses, see Sanderling (disambiguation).

Sanderling
Transitioning to Breeding Plumage in the Delaware Bay, New Jersey
Breeding plumage, Farmoor Reservoir, Oxfordshire
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Scolopacidae
Genus: Calidris
Species:
C. alba
Binomial name
Calidris alba
(Pallas, 1764)
Sanderling range.
Synonyms
  • Charadrius calidris Linnaeus, 1766
  • Crocethia alba (Pallas, 1764)[note 1]
  • Erolia alba (Pallas, 1764)
Sanderlings in Kanagawa, Japan

The sanderling (Calidris alba) is a small wading bird. The name derives from Old English sand-yrðling, "sand-ploughman".[2] The genus name is from Ancient Greek kalidris or skalidris, a term used by Aristotle for some grey-coloured waterside birds. The specific, alba, is Latin for "white".[3]

It is a circumpolar Arctic breeder, and is a long-distance migrant, wintering south to South America, South Europe, Africa, and Australia. It is highly gregarious in winter, sometimes forming large flocks on coastal mudflats or sandy beaches.

It is somewhat unlike other sandpipers in appearance, which has led to the suggestion that it should be placed into a monotypic genus Crocethia. A more recent review (Thomas et al., 2004) indicates, however, that the sanderling is a fairly typical "stint" or small sandpiper and should be separated from the large knots with its closest relatives in a distinct genus.

This bird is similar in size to a dunlin, but stouter, with a thick bill. It shows a strong white wingbar in flight, and runs along the sandy beaches it prefers with a characteristic "bicycling" action of its legs, stopping frequently to pick small food items. It eats small crabs and other small invertebrates. In spring, birds migrating north from South America consume large numbers of horseshoe crab eggs in the Delaware Bay area.

In spring, the birds arrive on the High Arctic breeding grounds (see map), where they lay 3–4 eggs in a ground scrape. On the nesting grounds, these birds mainly eat insects and some plant material.

The sanderling was described by the German naturalist Peter Simon Pallas in 1764 and given the binomial name Trynga alba.[4][5][6]

The sanderling is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.

  1. ^ BirdLife International (2016). "Calidris alba". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T22693369A86614145. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22693369A86614145.en. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
  2. ^ "Sanderling". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  3. ^ Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. pp. 40, 84. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  4. ^ Peters, James Lee (1934). Check-list of Birds of the World. Volume 2. Vol. 2. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 281 (Crocethia alba).
  5. ^ Sherborn, C. Davies (1905). "The new species of birds in Vroeg's catalogue, 1764". Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. 47: 332–341 [341 No. 320]. Includes a transcript of the 1764 text.
  6. ^ Rookmaaker, L.C.; Pieters, F.F.J.M. (2000). "Birds in the sales catalogue of Adriaan Vroeg (1764) described by Pallas and Vosmaer". Contributions to Zoology. 69 (4): 271–277. doi:10.1163/18759866-06904005.


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