Baird's sandpiper Calidris bairdii

Identification Tips:

• Length: 6 inches
• Small shorebird
• Short, thin, dark bill
• Black legs
• Black patch on rump extending onto tail
• Thin, white wing stripe
• Long wings
• Sexes similar

Adult alternate:

• Pale brown head with dark streaks
• Pale supercilium
• Black back feathers and wing coverts with pale brown edges
• Pale brown breast with fine streaks
• White underparts

Adult basic:

• Upperparts pale gray with black feather centers
• Dark gray-brown breast with fine dark streaks
• White underparts
• Indistinct white supercilium with darker crown and eyeline

Juvenile:

• Black-based back feathers and wing coverts with pale brown edges giving a scaly look
• Pale brown breast with fine dark spots
• White underparts

Similar species:

The Baird's Sandpiper is one of a group of very similar small shorebirds called "peeps". It appears browner than all but the Least Sandpiper. The Least Sandpiper is smaller, with shorter wings, and yellow legs. The White-rumped Sandpiper is most similar in size, but has a white rump and is grayer. Pectoral Sandpiper is also brown, but has yellow legs and a very abrupt demarcation between the dark chest and white belly.

Length and wingspan from: Robbins, C.S., Bruun, B., Zim, H.S., (1966). Birds of North America. New York: Western Publishing Company, Inc.