Wildlife Watching Wednesday: The Tiny Least Sandpiper
By: Tom Berg
Of all the various shorebirds in North America, the Least Sandpiper is the smallest. In fact, they are only a little larger than a sparrow. They are mostly brown above with mottling on their head, back and wings. Their bright white belly stands out against their coal-black eyes and bill. With a total wingspan of only 11 inches and weighing just one ounce, they are indeed very small birds.
Unlike many shorebirds that have long legs for wading in the water while they hunt for food, the least sandpiper has relatively short legs. That does not hinder their feeding efforts, though, because they prefer to hunt on exposed mudflats and along the muddy edges of lakes, marshes and swamps where they don’t have to wade in the water. If they have a choice between a sandy beach and a muddy shoreline, they will always head for the mud.
The reason is simple, too. Least sandpipers love to probe the mud for invertebrates like worms, insect larvae, water fleas, crustaceans and even snails and slugs. Newly hatched flies, dragonflies and mayflies are some of their favorite snacks. When these foods are scarce, they are also happy to eat weed seeds that they find along the shoreline.
The least sandpiper is a very long-distance migrant. They winter in the southern USA, Mexico and northern South America, and then migrate to the far northern tundra lands of Canada and Alaska to breed. Amazingly, the sandpipers that migrate north along the East Coast typically fly more than 2,000 miles over the Atlantic Ocean, flying non-stop to places like Nova Scotia, Labrador, Newfoundland and Quebec.
Nesting for least sandpipers takes place on the open tundra where there are no trees. The nest is a simple depression in the tundra grass or vegetation which the female finishes with a lining of dry grass, lichen or other vegetation. Most nests are only two inches across and two inches deep, but it is large enough for the 3-4 eggs that are laid. Once the babies hatch, they leave the nest within one day! These are incredible little birds!
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