Western Sandpiper - Sierra Club BC
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Western Sandpiper

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Western Sandpiper

Calidris mauri 

Appearance

Western sandpipers are small (adults are almost 20 centimetres long), with a white belly and black legs. In the winter, they are dull brown-grey and have a long black bill, but during summer and breeding season, they have reddish feathers on their head and red, black, brown, and white feathers on their back and wings, and a brown and white streaked breast. 

Range & Habitat

They breed in Alaska and eastern Asia, and migrate down the Pacific coast in the winter. Some western sandpipers are found on the Atlantic coast of North America. They are almost always found near shorelines, except during the breeding period. 

Reciprocal relationships

These birds are important for shoreline and coastal ecosystems. They like to eat small aquatic animals, including worms, shellfish, and insects.  They feed using their bill to drill small holes in the sand and mud. They help to limit small aquatic animal populations and can bring nutrients from the ocean more inland. 

They build their nests on the ground, in clumps of grass or shrubs, and lay three to five eggs. Both the males and females look after the eggs, and they take around 20 days to hatch. The young feed themselves, and they can fly after three weeks. Western sandpipers migrate from the south in the winter to northern areas for breeding in summer.  

While their populations are currently secure, western sandpipers are threatened by urban development, especially in their breeding territories and migration routes. 

status

COSEWIC: Not at Risk 
CDC: Yellow 

more information

If you belong to a First Nation with a story or piece of information not represented here and you would like to share more about this species, please email us at education@sierraclub.bc.ca.   

PHoto Credit

Canva

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