The smallest of the sandpipers. A slender bird, with longer yellowish legs, and a prominent white supercilium. The upperparts are sepia brown, faintly spotted with white and the underparts white except for the neck and upper breast which are streaked with brown. In the breeding season the spots are more defined, hence its previous name, Spotted Sandpiper. In flight the white rump and brown and white barred tail are prominent. It is a common and widespread winter visitor to inland wetlands, marshes, and flooded paddy fields. It is also one of the most gregarious of the sandpipers, and can often be seen in flocks of 20 or 30 birds and has been seen in Keezhnathur Eri. It feeds on insects, larvae, and small molluscs and fish. As it runs along the mud picking up tit-bits and probing the mud with its bill, it wags the tail end of its body up and down. It utters a shrill chiff-chiff-chiff as it flies off.
🗒 Synonyms
| No Data |
🗒 Common Names
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📚 Overview
Summary
Bird group
Sandpipers
Description
The wood sandpiper (Tringa glareola) is a small wader. The species has a short straight bill and long legs. They are dark above and are heavily and more obviously speckled.
No Data
📚 Nomenclature and Classification
📚 Natural History
Behaviour
Wood Sandpipers are often gregarious – and may occur in loose flocks of up to 100.
Trophic Strategy
Whilst on the breeding grounds this species is chiefly carnivorous, taking small insects (up to 2 cm long), especially the aquatic forms such as dytiscid or hydrophilid beetles, Hemiptera and the larvae of Diptera such as midges (Johnsgard 1981).
During the non-breeding season the species has a more varied diet consisting of aquatic and terrestrial insects and their larvae, worms, spiders, crustaceans, gastropod molluscs, small fish (up to 2 cm long) and frogs, as well as plant matter such as seeds (Johnsgard 1981, del Hoyo et al. 1996).
No Data
📚 Habitat and Distribution
General Habitat
Habitat
Terrestrial
Freshwater
Found near inland waters and at marshes, flooded paddy fields and tidal mudflats.
Terrestrial; Freshwater
During the breeding season this species inhabits open, swampy areas in boreal forest (del Hoyo et al. 1996), scrubland between tundra and coniferous forest with willow, dwarf birch or spruce (Snow and Perrins 1998), wet heathlands, and extensive mossy, sedgy or grassy marshes (Snow and Perrins 1998).
Outside of the breeding season this species is less associated with woodlands, being more commonly found in open areas such as the margins of inland freshwater lakes and reservoirs (Johnsgard 1981, del Hoyo et al. 1996), muddy marshlands, grassy stream banks, sewage farms, wet paddyfields, small temporary pools (del Hoyo et al. 1996), permanent swamps, flooded grassland and irrigation channels (Urban et al. 1986). It rarely occurs in coastal habitats, but may be found along the creeks of saltmarshes and mangrove swamps (del Hoyo et al. 1996).
Description
Global Distribution
India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldive Islands, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka
Distribution In India
Throughout India including Andaman
Distribution In Assam
Migratory in Assam
This species is a full migrant, travelling overland on a broad front across Europe and the Middle East (del Hoyo et al. 1996). The adults start to move away from the breeding grounds in late-June, with juveniles following in late-August, arriving in tropical Africa from late-July through August to October (Snow and Perrins 1998). On this southern migration many birds frequent stop-over sites to the north of the Mediterranean (especially in France and Italy), after which they overfly the Sahara (del Hoyo et al. 1996). Spring departure from the wintering grounds begins in late-March to early-April (Snow and Perrins 1998), with breeding areas starting to be reoccupied from late-April (early June in northern Russia) (Snow and Perrins 1998), and with breeding occurring between May and mid-July (del Hoyo et al. 1996). Some non-breeding birds may also remain in the south throughout the summer (Snow and Perrins 1998). The species nests in well-dispersed solitary pairs (from 1-10 pairs per km2 to 50 pairs per km2 in forest tundra) (del Hoyo et al. 1996), but in winter it may occur in small scattered groups or larger flocks (20-50 individuals), and concentrations can exceed 1,000 individuals on migration (Urban et al. 1986).
Global Distribution
Native: Afghanistan; Albania; Algeria; Angola; Armenia; Australia; Austria; Azerbaijan; Bahrain; Bangladesh; Belarus; Belgium; Benin; Bhutan; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Botswana; British Indian Ocean Territory; Brunei Darussalam; Bulgaria; Burkina Faso; Burundi; Cambodia; Cameroon; Canada; Cape Verde; Central African Republic; Chad; China; Christmas Island; Congo; Congo, The Democratic Republic of the; Côte d'Ivoire; Croatia; Cyprus; Czech Republic; Denmark; Djibouti; Egypt; Equatorial Guinea; Eritrea; Estonia; Ethiopia; Finland; France; Gabon; Gambia; Georgia; Germany; Ghana; Greece; Guam; Guinea; Guinea-Bissau; Hong Kong; Hungary; Iceland; India; Indonesia; Iran, Islamic Republic of; Iraq; Ireland; Israel; Italy; Japan; Jordan; Kazakhstan; Kenya; Korea, Democratic People's Republic of; Korea, Republic of; Kuwait; Kyrgyzstan; Lao People's Democratic Republic; Latvia; Lebanon; Lesotho; Liberia; Libya; Lithuania; Luxembourg; Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of; Madagascar; Malawi; Malaysia; Maldives; Mali; Malta; Marshall Islands; Mauritania; Micronesia, Federated States of ; Moldova; Mongolia; Montenegro; Morocco; Mozambique; Myanmar; Namibia; Nepal; Niger; Nigeria; Northern Mariana Islands; Norway; Oman; Pakistan; Palau; Palestinian Territory, Occupied; Papua New Guinea; Philippines; Poland; Portugal; Qatar; Romania; Russian Federation (Central Asian Russia, Eastern Asian Russia, European Russia); Rwanda; Sao Tomé and Principe; Saudi Arabia; Senegal; Serbia; Seychelles; Sierra Leone; Singapore; Slovakia; Slovenia; Somalia; South Africa; South Sudan; Spain; Sri Lanka; Sudan; Swaziland; Sweden; Switzerland; Syrian Arab Republic; Taiwan, Province of China; Tajikistan; Tanzania, United Republic of; Thailand; Timor-Leste; Togo; Tunisia; Turkey; Turkmenistan; Uganda; Ukraine; United Arab Emirates; United Kingdom; United States; Uzbekistan; Viet Nam; Western Sahara; Yemen; Zambia; Zimbabwe Vagrant: Antigua and Barbuda; Barbados; Bermuda; Comoros; Costa Rica; Dominica; Ecuador; Faroe Islands; Guadeloupe; Guatemala; Honduras; Liechtenstein; Martinique; Mauritius; Montserrat; Nicaragua; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Saint Lucia; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Trinidad and Tobago
No Data
📚 Occurrence
No Data
📚 Demography and Conservation
Trends
Stable
Conservation Status
IUCN Red List Category
Least Concern
IUCN Redlist Status: Least Concern
Red List Category & Criteria: Least Concern ver 3.1
No Data
📚 Uses and Management
📚 Information Listing
References
- Praveen J., Jayapal, R., & Pittie, A., 2016. Checklist of the birds of India (v1.1). Website: http://www.indianbirds.in/india/ [Date of publication: 03 October, 2016].
- Van Gils, J., Wiersma, P. & Kirwan, G.M. (2018). Wood Sandpiper (Tringa glareola). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from https://www.hbw.com/node/53910 on 10 May 2018).
- BirdLife International. 2016. Tringa glareola. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T22693247A86689640. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22693247A86689640.en. Downloaded on 10 May 2018.
- Praveen J., Jayapal, R., & Pittie, A., 2018. Checklist of the birds of India (v2.0). Website: http://www.indianbirds.in/india/ [Date of publication: 31 January, 2018].
Information Listing > References
- Praveen J., Jayapal, R., & Pittie, A., 2016. Checklist of the birds of India (v1.1). Website: http://www.indianbirds.in/india/ [Date of publication: 03 October, 2016].
- Van Gils, J., Wiersma, P. & Kirwan, G.M. (2018). Wood Sandpiper (Tringa glareola). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from https://www.hbw.com/node/53910 on 10 May 2018).
- BirdLife International. 2016. Tringa glareola. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T22693247A86689640. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22693247A86689640.en. Downloaded on 10 May 2018.
- Praveen J., Jayapal, R., & Pittie, A., 2018. Checklist of the birds of India (v2.0). Website: http://www.indianbirds.in/india/ [Date of publication: 31 January, 2018].
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🐾 Taxonomy
| Root | Root |
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Chordata |
| Class | Aves |
| Order | Charadriiformes |
| Family | Scolopacidae |
| Genus | Tringa |
| Species | Tringa glareola Linnaeus 1758 |
📊 Temporal Distribution
📷 Related Observations
👥 Groups
