Pectoral sandpiper Calidris melanotos

Identification Tips:

• Length: 7.5 inches
• Medium-sized shorebird
• Medium-sized, thin, dark bill
• Yellow legs
• Black patch on rump extending onto tail
• Thin, white wing stripe
• Sexes similar

Adult alternate:

• Brown head with dark streaks
• Pale supercilium
• Black back feathers and wing coverts with brown edges
• Brown breast with fine streaks ending abruptly and contrasting with white underparts

Adult basic:

• Similar to adult alternate
• Upperparts a duller brown

Juvenile:

• Similar to adult alternate
• Back feathers and wing coverts with pale brown, rust, or golden edges
• White 'V's on back
• Dark rusty crown

Similar species:

With its abrupt demarcation between the brown breast and the white underparts and yellow legs, the Pectoral Sandpiper is quite distinctive. It is larger than the peeps but shorter-billed and shorter-legged than dowitchers, yellowlegs, and Stilt Sandpipers. The rare Sharp-tailed Sandpiper is quite similar, but has more markings on the flanks. Juveniles have a redder crown and a more obvious supercilium.

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