Least Sandpiper

Calidris minutilla
STANFORD LOCATIONS:

  
Nest
Location
Nest
Type
Eggs
Mating System
Dev.
Parental Care
Primary &
2ndary Diet
Foraging
Strategy
M-F
I: 19-23 DAYS
PRECOCIAL 2
M-F
4
MONOG
F: ? DAYS
M-F
AQUATIC
INVERTS
SEEDS
PROBES
BREEDING: Mossy or wet grassy tundra, occ in drier habitats with scattered shrubs. 1 brood.
DISPLAYS: Advertising flight: male flies at 35'-100', alternating brief glides and bouts of rapid fluttering. See: Shorebird Communication.
NEST: In grass, moss, or sedge hummock in sphagnum bog or dry upland habitat. Lined with dry leaves, bits of dry grass. Both sexes present during scrape-making.
EGGS: Olive buff/pinkish, marked with dark brown, wreathed. 1.1" (29 mm).
DIET: On coast, also crustaceans, worms, mollusks.
CONSERVATION: Winters s to c and e Peru.
NOTES: Males evenly spaced in marsh-bog habitat. Territory usu for nest site only, occ also for foraging and brood-rearing; usu feed in undefended, communal area distant from nesting ground. Male assumes increasing role in incubation and is largely responsible for care of young. After nesting, adults and chicks move to undefended, communal feeding grounds. Flocks with Semipalmated Plovers, other "peeps" (small Calidris sandpipers). Extremely rapid wing beats and zigzag flight.
ESSAYS: Shorebird Migration and Conservation; Sandpipers, Social Systems, and Territoriality; Shorebird Feeding; Spacing of Wintering Shorebirds; Who Incubates? Parental Care.
REFERENCES: Cramp and Simmons, 1983; Johnsgard, 1981; Miller, 1983.

Help Abbreviations Species-Alphabetical Species-Taxonomic Essays-Alphabetical
Except for Stanford Locations, the material in this species treatment is taken, with permission, from The Birder's Handbook (Paul Ehrlich, David Dobkin, & Darryl Wheye, Simon & Schuster, NY. 1988).