Thai National Parks

Species of Thailand

Broad-billed sandpiper

Calidris falcinellus

Erik Pontoppidan, 1763

In Thai: นกชายเลนปากกว้าง

The broad-billed sandpiper (Calidris falcinellus) is a small wading bird. The scientific name is from Latin. The specific name falcinella is from falx, falcis, "a sickle. Some research suggests that it should rather go into the genus Philomachus.

Description

Broad-billed sandpipers are small waders, slightly smaller than the dunlin, but with a longer straighter bill, and shorter legs. The breeding adult has patterned dark grey upperparts and white underparts with blackish markings on the breast. It has a pale crown stripe and supercilia.

In the boreal winter, they are pale grey above and white below, like a winter dunlin, but retaining the head pattern. Juveniles have backs, similar to young dunlin, but the white flanks and belly and brown-streaked breast are distinctive.

Contact call is a dry, whistling “dree-it, dree-it” and a clicking “dik dik”.

Distribution and habitat

The broad-billed sandpiper is strongly migratory, spending the non-breeding season from easternmost Africa, through south and south-east Asia to Australasia. It is highly gregarious, and will form flocks with other calidrid waders, particularly dunlins. Despite its European breeding range, this species is rare on passage in western Europe, presumably because of the south-easterly migration route.

This bird's breeding habitat is wet taiga bogs in Arctic northern Europe and Siberia. The male performs an aerial display during courtship. They nest in a ground scrape, laying 4 eggs.

They forage in soft mud on marshes and the coast, mainly picking up food by sight. They mostly eat insects and other small invertebrates.

The broad-billed sandpiper is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.

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Category / Seasonal Status

Wiki listed status (concerning Thai population): Winter visitor

BCST Category: Recorded in an apparently wild state within the last 50 years

BCST Seasonal status: Non-breeding visitor

Scientific classification

Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Aves
Order
Charadriiformes
Family
Scolopacidae
Genus
Calidris
Species
Calidris falcinellus

Common names

  • English: Broad-billed sandpiper
  • French: Bécasseau falcinelle
  • Thai: นกชายเลนปากกว้าง

Conservation status

Least Concern (IUCN3.1)

Least Concern (IUCN3.1)

Photos

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Broad-billed sandpiper
Broad-billed sandpiper

Copyright kajornyot

Broad-billed sandpiper

Range Map

Distribution map of Broad-billed sandpiper, Calidris falcinellus in Thailand
  • Amphawa District, Samut Songkhram
  • Ao Phang-Nga National Park
  • Ban Laem District, Phetchaburi
  • Bang Pu Recreation Centre
  • Bueng Boraped Non-Hunting Area
  • Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park
  • Khao Yoi District, Phetchaburi
  • Laem Pak Bia
  • Mueang Chonburi District, Chonburi
  • Mueang Krabi District, Krabi
  • Mueang Pattani District, Pattani
  • Mueang Phetchaburi District, Phetchaburi
  • Mueang Samut Sakhon District, Samut Sakhon
  • Mueang Samut Songkhram District, Samut Songkhram
  • Pak Phanang District, Nakhon Si Thammarat
  • Pak Thale
  • Takua Pa District, Phang Nga
Range map of Calidris falcinellus in Thailand