Temminck's Stint

Overview

Temminck's Stint: Small sandpiper with gray-brown upperparts and faint breast band and white underparts. Dark tail is long with white outer feathers; upperwings are gray-brown and have dark markings. Flight is swift and direct with rapid wing beats. Has a distictive, hovering display flight.

Range and Habitat

Temminck's Stint: Breeds in the far northern arctic of Europe and Asia. Favors inland bodies of water during migration to Africa and the coasts of India and South Asia, where it winters on the margins of sheltered bays and estuaries. Very rarely wanders to the Aleutian Islands of Alaska.

INTERESTING FACTS

The Temminck's Stint was named after Coenraad Jacob Temminck, a Dutch naturalist.
An apparent hybrid between this species and the Little Stint has been reported from the Netherlands.
They have a distinctive mouse-like feeding behaviour, creeping steadily along the edges of pools.
A group of stints are collectively known as a "spell" of stints.

The Temminck's Stint has a large range, estimated globally at 1,000,000 to 10,000,000 square kilometers. Native to Europe, Asia, and Africa and vagrant to the Unites States, this bird prefers grassland, wetland, or marine ecosystems. The global population of this bird is estimated at 170,000 to 1,300,000 individuals and does not show signs of decline that would necessitate inclusion on the IUCN Red List. For this reason, the current evaluation status of the Temminck's Stint is Least Concern.