Wood Sandpiper

Overview

Wood Sandpiper: Medium, long-legged sandpiper with dark gray-brown upperparts and breast heavily marked with white spots and notches. Underparts are white; legs usually green, but may be yellow and lead to confusion with Lesser Yellowlegs. Underwings pale gray; rump is white with black-barred tail.

Range and Habitat

Wood Sandpiper: Breeds across northern Europe and Asia, winters in equatorial areas from Africa to Asia. Found on the Aleutian Islands of Alaska during spring migration, and occasionally lingers to breed. Has been found in British Columbia and northeastern North America.

INTERESTING FACTS

The Wood Sandpiper was first described in 1758 by Carolus Linnaeus, Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist.
This bird is the smallest of the shanks.
A group of sandpipers has many collective nouns, including a "bind", "contradiction", "fling", "hill", and "time-step" of sandpipers.

The Wood Sandpiper has an an enormous range reaching up to about 10 million square kilometers. This bird can be found throughout all of North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and vagrant population in much of Central America and the Caribbean. This bird's habitat is nearly as diverse as its range and includes forests and shrublands, grasslands and wetlands and all aquatic and marine areas including man-made locations such as irrigated areas and wastewater treatment centers. The global population of this bird is estimated to be around between 3 and 4 million individual birds. The global population of this species has not been accurately quantified, but it is not believed to approach thresholds for population decline. Due to this, population trends for the Wood Sandpiper have a present evaluation level of Least Concern.