Solitary sandpiper Tringa solitaria

Identification Tips:

• Length: 7 inches
• Fairly small, long-legged shorebird
• Greenish legs
• Bold white eye ring
• Dark rump
• Dark tail has black bars on the white outer tail feathers
• Dark underwing
• Sexes similar
• Juvenile similar to basic-plumaged adult
• Usually solitary, often bobs tail

Adult alternate:

• Head, neck, and chest streaked with dark brown and white
• Dark brown back and upperwings with small white spots
• White belly
• Whitish supraloral stripe, dark lores

Adult basic:

• Smooth gray-brown head and neck fading to white belly
• Gray-brown back speckled with white

Similar species:

Yellowlegs are similar but have yellow (not green) legs and white rumps, visible in flight. Spotted Sandpiper has a white wing stripe visible in flight and a dark back without white spots. Two European species, the Green Sandpiper and the Wood Sandpiper are easily separated by tail pattern, underwing color and head pattern.

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