Rock sandpiper Calidris ptilocnemis

Identification Tips:

• Small shorebird
• Medium-sized, thin, dark bill with yellow base
• Yellow legs
• Black patch on rump extending onto tail
• Thin, white wing stripe
• Sexes similar

Adult alternate:

• Brown and white head
• Pale indistinct supercilium with brown cheeks and crown
• Black back feathers and wing coverts with rust edges
• Brown breast with dark spots
• Black belly and white undertail coverts

Adult basic:

• Dark gray head without darker streaks
• Dark gray breast with streaks extending onto flanks
• Very dark back with thin gray edges

Juvenile:

• Similar to adult basic
• Upperparts browner than basic adult

Similar species:

This sandpiper is most likely to be found on rocks in coastal areas. Other small shorebirds are paler and lack the yellow legs and yellow-based bill. In flight, turnstones, sanderlings, and surfbirds have more white in the wings. The Purple Sandpiper is very similar in basic plumage but is found on the Atlantic Coast.