Sharp-tailed Sandpiper

Overview

The Sharp-tailed Sandpiper breeds on tundra in northeastern Siberia and migrates primarily through East Asia to winter chiefly in Australia and New Zealand, occurring as a rare but regular vagrant elsewhere, including North America. It closely resembles the Pectoral Sandpiper but shows a warmer rufous cap and different underparts markings.

Feathers are most often found at freshwater marshes, flooded grasslands, and coastal wetlands along its East Asian-Australasian migration route.

Feather Identification

• Crown feathers: bright rufous, more vivid than the streaked brown crown of the similar Pectoral Sandpiper.
• Underparts: buffy breast marked with dark chevron-shaped spots and streaks rather than the sharply demarcated dark breast band of Pectoral Sandpiper.
• Upperparts: dark-centered feathers broadly fringed with rufous and buff, giving a warm, scaly appearance.
• Tail feathers: pointed central tail feathers, consistent with the species' name, though this is best assessed on an intact tail.
• Versus Pectoral Sandpiper: Sharp-tailed Sandpiper feathers show a warmer, more rufous crown and less sharply defined breast markings, with chevron-like spotting rather than a solid dark breast band.

Plumage Notes

Breeding adults show a bright rufous crown, buffy face, and underparts marked with bold dark chevrons and streaks across the breast and flanks; sexes look alike. Nonbreeding adults become duller, with a plainer buffy-brown breast and less contrasting crown, though some rufous crown tone often persists.

Juveniles show a warm buffy breast wash with fine streaking mostly confined to the sides, plus neatly scaled rufous-and-black upperpart feathers. Adults molt into nonbreeding plumage mostly after migration; juveniles retain a distinctive fresh, buffy first-winter plumage into early in their first winter.

Habitat & Range

Sharp-tailed Sandpipers breed on wet Arctic tundra in northeastern Siberia. They migrate largely through East Asia, favoring freshwater marshes, flooded fields, and wet grasslands over open mudflats, and winter mainly in Australia and New Zealand, with regular but scarce occurrences elsewhere including the west coast of North America.

Behavior & Field Notes

This species forages in shallow freshwater and wet grassy habitats, picking and probing for invertebrates, often in the company of other migratory sandpipers. It has a somewhat more upright posture than many calidrids, recalling the closely related Pectoral Sandpiper.

Nests are shallow tundra scrapes. The flight call is a soft, whistled "queet" or "twick," different from the harsher call of Pectoral Sandpiper. Feather finds along the Pacific coast of North America, though scarce, are typically associated with vagrant individuals during migration seasons.