Calidris fuscicollis (White-rumped sandpiper) 

Witrugstrandloper [Afrikaans]; Bonapartes-strandloper [Dutch]; Bécasseau de Baird [French]; Bairds strandläufer [German]; Pilrito de Bonaparte [Portuguese]

Life > Eukaryotes > Opisthokonta > Metazoa (animals) > Bilateria > Deuterostomia > Chordata > Craniata > Vertebrata (vertebrates)  > Gnathostomata (jawed vertebrates) > Teleostomi (teleost fish) > Osteichthyes (bony fish) > Class: Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned fish) > Stegocephalia (terrestrial vertebrates) > Tetrapoda (four-legged vertebrates) > Reptiliomorpha > Amniota > Reptilia (reptiles) > Romeriida > Diapsida > Archosauromorpha > Archosauria > Dinosauria (dinosaurs) > Saurischia > Theropoda (bipedal predatory dinosaurs) > Coelurosauria > Maniraptora > Aves (birds) > Order: Charadriiformes > Family: Scolopacidae

White-rumped sandpiper, California, USA. [photo Jeff Poklen ©]

Distribution and habitat

Breeds in Arctic Canada from Baffin Island to Mackenzie Island, heading south in the non-breeding season to South America, but it is also a rare vagrant to Europe. Australasia and Africa, including southern Africa. Here it is has occasionally been sighted on the coast and further inland in central and northern Namibia, the coast of the Western and Eastern Cape and the North-West Province. It generally prefers coastal and inland wetlands, especially estuarine mudflats, sewage works and coastal lagoons.

Food 

It mainly forages by wading through water and probing the mud, often in flocks with Little stints and Curlew sandpipers.

References

• Hockey PAR, Dean WRJ and Ryan PG 2005. Roberts - Birds of southern Africa, VIIth ed. The Trustees of the John Voelcker Bird Book Fund, Cape Town.