common sandpiper

The common sandpiper was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Tringa hypoleucos.{{cite book | last=Linnaeus | first=C. |author-link=Carl Linnaeus | year=1758 | title= Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis |volume=((Volume 1)) |edition=Tenth |page=149 |publisher=Laurentii Salvii | location=Holmiae (Stockholm) |language=Latin |chapter=Tringa hypoleucos |chapter-url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/727056}} The species is now placed together with the spotted sandpiper in the genus Actitis that was introduced in 1811 by the German zoologist Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger.{{cite book |last=Illiger | first=J.K.W. |author-link=Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger |year=1811 |title=Prodromus systematis mammalium et avium |language=Latin |location=Berolini [Berlin] |publisher=Sumptibus C. Salfeld |page=262 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/29301232}}{{cite web |editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=F. | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) |editor2-last=Donsker |editor2-first=D. |editor3-last=Rasmussen | editor3-first=P. | editor3-link=Pamela Rasmussen |date=2021 | title=Sandpipers, snipes, coursers |work=IOC World Bird List Version 11.2 | url=https://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/sandpipers/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union | access-date=22 November 2021}} The genus name Actitis is from Ancient Greek aktites meaning "coast-dweller" from akte meaning "coast". The specific epithet hypoleucos combines the Ancient Greek hupo meaning "beneath" with leukos meaning "white".{{cite book | last= Jobling | first= J.A. | year= 2010| title= The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | publisher= Christopher Helm | location = London | isbn = 978-1-4081-2501-4 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling/page/n31 31], [https://archive.org/details/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling/page/n199 199]}} The species is monotypic and no subspecies are recognised.

The adult is {{convert|18|–|20|cm|in|abbr=on}} long with a {{convert|32|–|35|cm|in|abbr=on}} wingspan. It has greyish-brown upperparts, white underparts, short dark-yellowish legs and feet, and a bill with a pale base and dark tip. In winter plumage, they are duller and have more conspicuous barring on the wings, though this is still only visible at close range. Juveniles are more heavily barred above and have buff edges to the wing feathers.{{cite book |last1=Hayman |first1=P. |last2=Marchant |first2=J. |last3=Prater |first3=T. |year=1986 |title=Shorebirds: an Identification Guide to the Waders of the World |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |location=Boston |isbn=0-395-60237-8}}

This species is very similar to the slightly larger spotted sandpiper (A. macularia) in non-breeding plumage. But its darker legs and feet and the crisper wing pattern (visible in flight) tend to give it away, and of course they are only rarely found in the same location.

The common sandpiper breeds across most of temperate and subtropical Europe and Asia, and migrates to Africa, southern Asia and Australia in winter. The eastern edge of its migration route passes by Palau in Micronesia, where hundreds of birds may gather for a stop-over. They depart the Palau region for their breeding quarters around the last week of April to the first week of May.{{cite journal |last1=VanderWerf |first1=E.A. |last2=Wiles |first2=G.J. |last3=Marshall |first3=A.P. |last4=Knecht |first4=M. |year=2006 |title=Observations of migrants and other birds in Palau, April–May 2005, including the first Micronesian record of a Richard's Pipit |journal=Micronesica |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=11–29 |url=http://micronesica.org/sites/default/files/2_vanderwerf-palau.pdf}}

The Common Sandpiper is usually encountered alone, occasionally in small groups, although larger flocks are sometimes formed around migration{{cite book |last1=Menkhjorst |first1=Peter |last2=Rogers |first2=Danny |last3=Clarke |first3=Rohan |last4=Davies |first4=Jeff |last5=Marsack |first5=Peter |last6=Franklin |first6=Kim |title=The Australian Bird Guide |date=2020 |publisher=CSIRO |location=Canberra |isbn=9780643097544 |edition=Revised}} or at breeding season roosts. It seldom joins multispecies flocks. This species has a distinctive stiff-winged flight, low over the water.

File:Actitis hypoleucos MHNT.jpg

File:Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) probing mud banks in Kolkata I IMG 4169.jpg]]

It nests on the ground near freshwater. When threatened, the young may cling to their parent's body to be flown away to safety.{{cite journal |last=Mann |first=C.F. |year=1991 |title=Sunda Frogmouth Batrachostomus cornutus carrying its young |journal=Forktail |volume=6 |pages=77–78 |url=http://orientalbirdclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Mann-Frogmouth.pdf |access-date=2016-02-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304203825/http://orientalbirdclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Mann-Frogmouth.pdf |archive-date=2016-03-04 |url-status=dead}}

The common sandpiper forages by sight on the ground or in shallow water, picking up small food items such as insects, crustaceans and other invertebrates; it may even catch insects in flight.

It is widespread and common, and therefore classified as a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List but is a vulnerable species in some states of Australia. The common sandpiper is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.{{cite web | title=Species| url=https://www.unep-aewa.org/en/species | publisher=Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) | access-date=14 November 2021}}

In the Nukumanu language of the Nukumanu Islands (Papua New Guinea), this species is usually called tiritavoi. Another Nukumanu name for it, matakakoni, exists, but this is considered somewhat taboo and not used when children and women are around. The reason for this is that matakakoni means "bird that walks a little, then copulates", in reference to the pumping tail and thrusting head movements the Actitis species characteristically perform during foraging.{{cite journal |last=Hadden |first=D.W. |year=2004 |title=Birds of the northern atolls of the North Solomons Province of Papua New Guinea |journal=Notornis |volume=51 |issue=2 |pages=91–102 |url=http://notornis.osnz.org.nz/system/files/Notornis_51_2_91.pdf |access-date=2016-02-20 |archive-date=2020-01-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200114152801/https://www.notornis.osnz.org.nz/system/files/Notornis_51_2_91.pdf |url-status=dead }}

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons}}

{{Wikispecies|Actitis hypoleucos}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20161020125325/http://aulaenred.ibercaja.es/wp-content/uploads/211_CommonSandpiperAhypoleucos.pdf Ageing and sexing (PDF; 5.5 MB) by Javier Blasco-Zumeta & Gerd-Michael Heinze]
• [http://sabap2.adu.org.za/docs/sabap1/264.pdf Common sandpiper species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds]
• {{BirdLife|22693264|Actitis hypoleucos}}
• {{Avibase|name=Actitis hypoleucos}}
• {{InternetBirdCollection|common-sandpiper-actitis-hypoleucos}}
• {{VIREO|Common+sandpiper}}
• {{Xeno-canto species|Actitis|hypoleucos|Common sandpiper}}
• {{field guide birds of the world|Actitis hypoleucos}}
• {{ARKive}}

{{Scolopacidae|2}}

{{Taxonbar |from=Q18850}}

Category:Actitis

Category:Wading birds

Category:Birds of Eurasia

Category:Birds described in 1758

Category:Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus