Broad-billed Sandpiper

Overview

Broad-billed Sandpiper: Small sandpiper with a long bill that curves down at the tip. Pale-edged dark brown feathers on upperparts give a scaled appearance; back shows two pale streaks in flight; underparts are white with dark spots on breast and neck. Head has dark cap and forked white eyebrows.

Range and Habitat

Broad-billed Sandpiper: Habitats used during nonbreeding season range from muddy pond margins and wet meadows to rocky beaches and tidal mudflats. Breeds in northern Europe and Asia and winters coastlines of South Asia. Juveniles very rarely show up in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska.

INTERESTING FACTS

The Broad-billed Sandpiper is the only member of the genus Limicola; some have proposed that it should be placed in the genus Erolia with the "stint" sandpipers but recent research suggests that it is should go into the genus Philomachus with the ruff and possibly the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper.
They often feed while wading, in water so deep that they have to submerge their heads and necks in order to probe the underlying mud.
Unlike most other small wader species, which often occur in flocks of hundreds of individuals, they are almost exclusively found in groups of less than 10. Only in Hungary are they recorded regularly in moderate numbers.
A group of sandpipers has many collective nouns, including a "bind", "contradiction", "fling", "hill", and "time-step" of sandpipers.

The Broad-billed Sandpiper has a large range, estimated globally at 100,000 to 1,000,000 square kilometers. It is native to Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia, though it has been spotted in the United States and various nations in these regions to which it is not native. It prefers to live in wetlands or marine areas preferring very wet or flooded areas. It has an estimated population of 71,000 to 160,000 individuals. The population decline has not been determined but is not thought to be near the threshold for inclusion on the IUCN Red List. Because of this, the status of the Broad-billed sandpiper is Least Concern.