Temminck's Stint

Overview

Temminck's Stint is a small Eurasian sandpiper that breeds across the subarctic and boreal zone from Scandinavia to eastern Siberia. It tends to favor vegetated freshwater edges rather than open mudflats, and its plumage is generally plainer and less contrastingly patterned than that of the similarly sized Little Stint.

Feathers are small and often found around the muddy or grassy margins of freshwater pools and slow-moving streams used during migration.

Feather Identification

• Overall tone: plain grayish-brown upperpart feathers, generally duller and less rufous than Little Stint or other small stints, even in breeding plumage.
• Tail feathers: outer tail feathers are white, a useful distinguishing feature when tail feathers are found intact, unlike the more uniformly dark tails of related stints.
• Underparts: pale grayish breast band grading to white belly, with little bold streaking.
• Wing feathers: dark brown-gray with a faint pale wingbar.
• Versus Little Stint: Temminck's Stint feathers are duller and less rufous overall, and the white outer tail feathers offer a strong distinguishing clue not present in Little Stint.

Plumage Notes

Breeding adults show a subdued grayish-brown back with only limited darker feather centers, and a plain grayish breast band; sexes look alike. Nonbreeding adults are similarly plain gray-brown above and white below, showing only subtle seasonal change compared to more strikingly patterned stints.

Juveniles show slightly warmer buff fringing on the upperparts compared to adults, but still notably duller than juvenile Little Stints. Molt into nonbreeding plumage happens gradually through autumn migration and after arrival on wintering grounds.

Habitat & Range

Temminck's Stint breeds across subarctic and boreal habitats from Scandinavia through Siberia, often near freshwater pools at the edge of taiga or tundra. It migrates through Europe and Asia to winter on freshwater and coastal wetlands across sub-Saharan Africa and South and Southeast Asia.

Behavior & Field Notes

This species often behaves somewhat like a tiny sandpiper crossed with a small plover, freezing and crouching low when alarmed, and favoring quiet, vegetated pool edges over exposed open mudflats. It forages with quick pecking movements for small invertebrates.

Nests are shallow scrapes near freshwater, often at the edge of low vegetation. The flight call is a distinctive, dry, trilling rattle unlike the calls of most other small stints. Feathers are typically found around quiet freshwater margins rather than open coastal mudflats.