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Sharp-Tailed Sandpiper | Calidris acuminata
Siberische strandloper | Correlimos Acuminado
The Sharp-Tailed Sandpiper is a medium-sized sandpiper with a rufous crown, a clear white supercilium and a fairly short, slightly decurved bill. It breeds on the tundra of north-eastern Siberia and winters mainly in Australasia; in southern Africa it is a rare vagrant, usually among Ruffs and other waders.
Voice
A soft, dry wheep or trrt, sometimes doubled, and a twittering prrt-prrt on take-off.
Recording: Ukolov Ilya — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
17–22 cm. Non-breeding adults are grey-brown above with dark feather centres, and have a rufous-tinged, finely streaked crown, a white supercilium that broadens behind the eye and a drab grey breast with faint streaks merging gradually into the white belly. Juveniles, the most frequent here, are brightly coloured: a bright orange-rufous crown, a warm orange-buff breast with fine streaks only at the sides and a scaly back with rufous fringes. The bill is dark with a pale base, the legs greenish-yellow. In flight a narrow wingbar and white sides to a dark rump.
Confusion species
Pectoral Sandpiper Calidris melanotos has a heavily streaked breast sharply cut off from the white belly, a less striking supercilium and a less rufous crown. Ruff Calidris pugnax is larger, with a small head on a long neck and white oval patches on the tail base. Curlew Sandpiper Calidris ferruginea has a longer decurved bill, black legs and a white rump.
Habitat
Muddy and grassy margins of shallow fresh inland waters, sewage ponds and flooded grassland, sometimes also coastal saltworks and brackish lagoons. It feeds with quick pecking movements, often among Ruffs, Curlew Sandpipers and stints.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of southern Africa.
Range and movements
Only a handful of records in the region, mainly from South Africa and Namibia, usually between October and April. Beyond the region it breeds in north-eastern Siberia and winters in New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand; it is also a vagrant elsewhere in Africa and in Europe.
How and when to look
Check large flocks of Ruffs and Curlew Sandpipers at pans and sewage ponds for a bird with a striking rufous cap and a white supercilium. Note the transition from breast to belly: gradual in this species, sharply cut off in Pectoral Sandpiper. Photographs and a description are needed for the rarities committee.
Conservation status
Vulnerable: the world population is declining rapidly through the loss of intertidal areas and wetlands along the East Asian flyway, especially around the Yellow Sea. The vagrants in southern Africa have no bearing on the population.
Scientific name
Calidris acuminata | (Horsfield, 1821)
Horsfield described the species in 1821 as Totanus acuminatus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Calidris was introduced in 1804 by Merrem. Calidris goes back to Ancient Greek kalidris or skalidris, a name Aristotle used for an unidentified grey waterside bird. acuminata is Latin for 'sharp, pointed', after the sharply pointed tail. The specimen the first description was based on came from Java.