Terek Sandpiper

Overview

Terek Sandpiper: Medium-sized sandpiper with lightly spotted gray upperparts, white underparts, and gray wash on upper breast. Eyestripes are dark. Bill is long, black with orange at the base and curved upward. Legs are relatively short and bright orange. Swift direct flight with rapid wing beats.

Range and Habitat

Terek Sandpiper: Eurasian species; rare migrant on outer Aleutians; accidental in fall to coastal British Columbia, California, and Massachusetts. Breeds along rivers and lakeshores in wooded areas and marshes. Mostly coastal outside breeding season, usually found in estuaries, mudflats, and tidal creeks.

INTERESTING FACTS

The Terek Sandpiper is the only member of the genus Xenus.
It feeds in a distinctive and very active way, chasing insects and other mobile prey, and sometimes then running to the water's edge to wash its catch.
A group of sandpipers has many collective nouns, including a "bind", "contradiction", "fling", "hill", and "time-step" of sandpipers.

The Terek Sandpiper has a large range, estimated globally at 1,000,000 to 10,000,000 square kilometers. Native to Africa, Europe, Asia, and the United States, this bird prefers wetland, marine, or forest ecosystems. The global population of this bird is estimated at 160,000 to 1,200,000 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 Terek Sandpiper is Least Concern.