Baird's Sandpiper

Overview

Baird's Sandpiper: Medium sandpiper with scaled, gray-brown upperparts, white underparts, and dark-spotted, gray-brown breast. Crown, face, and neck are buff with fine, dark brown streaks. Rump is white with dark central stripe extending through the center of gray-brown tail. Black legs and feet.

Range and Habitat

Baird's Sandpiper: Breeds in the Arctic from eastern Siberia and Alaska to northwestern Greenland. Spends winters in South America, migrating mostly through the interior of North America; uncommon on Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Preferred habitats include freshwater marshes, riverbanks, and lakesides; less frequent on coastal and brackish marshes and adjacent grasslands.

INTERESTING FACTS

Once the young develop their back feathers capable of shedding rain or snow, they no longer requiring brooding and the adults abandon them and begin their southbound migration. Without competition for food from the adults, the young probably mature more quickly, and a month later, begin their first migration.
Research shows that in the fall adults fly along a narrow route through the Great Plains of North America, while young birds migrate over a broad front, and sometimes appear on both Pacific and Atlantic coasts. It is suspected that they may cover up to 4,000 miles nonstop.
The Baird's Sandpiper was named in honor of Spencer Fullerton Baird (1823-1887), for many years Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
A group of sandpipers has many collective nouns, including a "bind", "contradiction", "fling", "hill", and "time-step" of sandpipers.

The Baird's Sandpiper has a global range estimated to be as much as 10 million square kilometers. This bird is native to many countries throughout the world, including Colombia, the United States, Peru and Greenland. It has also been spotted in a number of other countries as well, including parts of Asia and Africa. The population of this bird is thought to be around 300,000 individual birds. Currently, Baird's Sandpiper has a rating of Least Concern, due to its range and population size.