Spotted sandpiper Actitis macularia

Identification Tips:

• Length: 6.25 inches
• Fairly small, short-legged shorebird
• Yellowish or pinkish legs
• White wingstripe visible in flight
• Teeters tail when feeding and walking
• Distinctive, stiff winged, fluttery flight on bowed wings
• Sexes similar
• Juvenile similar to basic-plumaged adult

Adult alternate:

• Orange bill with a black tip
• Pale supercilium and dark eyeline
• Brown head, hindneck, back, and upperwings with small black bars
• White throat, breast and belly with bold black spots

Adult basic:

• Variably dark bill with pale base
• Pale brown head with dark eyeline and pale supercilium
• Plain dark back, upperwings with dark and buff bars
• Sides of breast brown, with finger of white extending up in front of leading edge of wing when at rest
• Throat, breast, and belly white, without dark spots

Similar species:

Solitary Sandpiper is larger and has a bold eyering, no wing stripe, white-spotted upperparts and a different flight style. The Eurasian Common Sandpiper, a rare migrant, is very similar to basic and juvenile-plumaged Spotted Sandpipers. The Spotted Sandpiper has a shorter tail, shorter white wing stripe, more barred wing coverts and, as a juvenile, tertials that are marked with buff only at the tip.

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