Least sandpiper Calidris minutilla

Identification Tips:

• Length: 4.75 inches
• Very small shorebird
• Short, thin, dark bill slightly decurved
• Yellow legs
• Thin, white wing stripe
• Black line on rump extends onto tail
• Sexes similar

Adult alternate:

• Brown head
• Black back feathers and wing coverts with brown edges
• Brown breast with black spotting
• White underparts
• Indistinct white supercilium with darker crown and eyeline

Adult basic:

• Similar to adult alternate but plumage gray-brown
• Gray-brown breast band
• White underparts
• Indistinct white supercilium with darker crown and eyeline

Juvenile:

• Black-based back feathers and wing coverts with bright rusty edges
• White "V" on back
• Breast with golden cast and fine streaking
• White underparts
• Rusty crown and pale supercilium

Similar species:

The Least Sandpiper is one of a group of very similar small shorebirds called "peeps" but the only common one with yellow legs, a brown plumage, and a thin, slightly decurved bill. The rare Long-toed Stint is very similar (see Jonsson & Grant, 1984). The Pectoral Sandpiper is also brown with yellow legs but is larger with a crisp, squared-off division between the brown breast 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.