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Grey-tailed Tattler (Tringa [Heteroscelus] brevipes) Alternate name(s): "Grey-rumped Tattler", "Grey-rumped Sandpiper", "Siberian Tattler" Size: 25-28 cm; wing span 45-55 cm Body mass: 100-140 g

Australia: Family Group 8 Family Group 8 Table Red-backed Button-quail Chestnut-backed Button-quail Little Button-quail Red-chested Button-quail Painted Button-quail Black-breasted Button-quail Ruddy Turnstone Latham's Snipe Swinhoe's Snipe Painted Snipe Asian Dowitcher Bar-tailed Godwit Black-tailed Godwit Hudsonian Godwit Whimbrel Little Curlew Eastern Curlew Eurasian Curlew Pectoral Sandpiper Sharp-tailed Sandpiper Curlew Sandpiper Ruff Red Knot Great Knot Wandering Tattler Grey-tailed Tattler Wood Sandpiper Terek Sandpiper Common Sandpiper Green Sandpiper Buff-breasted Sandpiper Common Greenshank Marsh Sandpiper Red-necked Stint Long-toed Stint Temminck's Stint Sanderling Broad-billed Sandpiper Thumbnails page Family group table Index of bird names Habitat pages Key plants Birds home page

Similar species

Description     Classification     Distribution     Sightings     Photos     Breeding     Nest     Eggs     Behaviour     Food     Call/s

Physical description Click here for a physical description Grey-tailed Tattlers are small waders. Their plumage is cryptic. When seen in Australia, they are in eclipse plumage. During the non-breeding season they have a white throat patch, light-grey chest and shoulders and white belly, vent and undertail coverts. The head, except for white eyebrows and thin white eye-rings, is all light-grey. The lores are grey. The crown and the back, including the wings, are also grey, with dark-grey wing tips. In-flight they do not show a wing bar. During the breeding season, most of the parts that are white in eclipse (frons, eyebrows, throat patch, upper belly) and the flanks and rump are finely scalloped grey-brown. Only the lower belly and vent remain white. The eyes have dark irises. The dark-grey bill is straight and longer than the size of the head, with an olive-grey base of the lower mandible. The legs and feet are yellow-olive. In-flight the legs do not protrude beyond the tail. Juveniles roughly resemble non-breeding adults, but are paler overall, making the dark-grey lores more conspicuous. Twitcher's tip Compared with Wandering Tattlers, they have less colour contrast between front and back and a lighter-grey appearance overall. Compared to other species of small sandpipers and stints, both species of tattlers have distinctive yellow legs. The correct identification of waders ("shorebirds"), e.g. of the Calidris, Tringa, Actitis and related families or of the Charadrius, Pluvialis and related genera in the field can be quite tricky. We have therefore made an attempt to give some advice HERE.

Taxonomy, classification See Grey-tailed Tattler at Wikipedia .

Range, habitat, finding this species Click here for information on habitat and range The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org . The global distribution of the Grey-tailed Tattler is available HERE . The breeding grounds of the Grey-tailed Tattler are located on both sides of the Bering Sea, in far-eastern Russia, the Aleutian islands and northern Alaska. During their migration they follow the West Pacific rim (Japan, eastern China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines) to their wintering grounds in Indonesia, New Guinea, Oceania, Australia and New Zealand. Grey-tailed Tattlers migrate from the North around the entire Australian seaboard. They mostly stay along the North coast (in particular the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Coral Sea, but also the North-West and East coasts. They are only occasionally found along the South coast and the coastline of Tasmania. Grey-tailed Tattlers do not venture into the Australian interior. Grey-tailed Tattlers are usually found around coastal waters, in mangrove swamps, but also rocky environments and in mudflats in river estuaries.

Sightings Click here for sighting information A group of Grey-tailed Tattlers was first spotted by us at the Urunga board walk, Urunga Heads, NSW, in January 2011 and again in February 2012, where they were found in the intertidal wetlands of an estuary. Several contributors report spotting Grey-tailed Tattlers in various locations in and near Darwin, NT, on different occasions. M. Mearns reports spotting a Grey-tailed Tattler on Lady Elliot Island, near Agnes Water, QLD, in January 2016. M. Eaton reports spotting Grey-tailed Tattlers, part of which in breeding plumage, regularly along the coastline of south-eastern QLD.

Photos

ADULT

Sex unknown

BREEDING

Near-frontal view of a Grey-tailed Tattler in breeding plumage (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Nudgee Beach, QLD, February 2018]

Lateral view of a Grey-tailed Tattler in breeding plumage (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Nudgee Beach, QLD, February 2018]

Grey-tailed Tattlers in breeding plumage (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Toorbul Wader Roost, Brisbane, QLD, September 2017]

Grey-tailed Tattlers in both breeding and non-breeding plumage, together with (larger) Bar-tailed Godwits; the Grey-tailed Tattlers in breeding plumage are the two smaller birds at centre left (lateral view) and, in particular, back right (near-lateral view), with the barred front and flanks (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Wynnum Foreshore, Brisbane, QLD, August 2017]

NON-BREEDING

Near-lateral view of a Grey-tailed Tattler in non-breeding plumage (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Deception Bay, QLD, February 2018]

Near-lateral view of a Grey-tailed Tattler in breeding plumage (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Nudgee Beach, QLD, February 2018]

Lateral view of a Grey-tailed Tattler in non-breeding plumage (photo courtesy of M. Mearns)
[Lady Elliot Island, near Agnes Water, QLD, January 2016]

Lateral view of a Grey-tailed Tattler in non-breeding plumage (photo courtesy of M. Mearns)
[Lady Elliot Island, near Agnes Water, QLD, January 2016]

Lateral view of a Grey-tailed Tattler in non-breeding plumage (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[East Point, Darwin, NT, January 2019]

Lateral view of a Grey-tailed Tattler in non-breeding plumage (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Deception Bay, QLD, February 2018]

Lateral view of a Grey-tailed Tattler in non-breeding plumage; this is the bird whose call was recorded on 10 March 2020 (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Coconut Grove, Darwin, NT, March 2020]

Close-up near-dorsal view of a Grey-tailed Tattler in non-breeding plumage (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Esplanade, Cairns, QLD, December 2018]

Close-up near-dorsal view of a Grey-tailed Tattler in non-breeding plumage, here seen preening (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Esplanade, Cairns, QLD, December 2018]

Near-dorsal view of a Grey-tailed Tattler in non-breeding plumage (photo courtesy of M. Mearns)
[Lady Elliot Island, near Agnes Water, QLD, January 2016]

Behaviour

Social behaviour: Communal

Mobility: Migratory

Elementary unit: Solitary/mob/flock

Grey-tailed Tattlers clearly do not mind the presence of other waders around them.

Comparison of a Grey-tailed Tattler in non-breeding plumage with a Common Greenshank, also in non-breeding plumage
(photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Rapid Creek, Darwin, NT, October 2019]

Comparison of a Grey-tailed Tattler in non-breeding plumage with a Common Sandpiper, also in non-breeding plumage
(photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[Rapid Creek, Darwin, NT, October 2019]

Additional information

Comparison with Bar-tailed Godwit

A series of photos comparing a Grey-tailed Tattler with a Bar-tailed Godwit is available HERE.

Food, Diet

Grey-tailed Tattler in non-breeding plumage taking a mud crab (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Esplanade, Cairns, QLD, December 2018]

Grey-tailed Tattler in non-breeding plumage taking a mud crab (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Esplanade, Cairns, QLD, December 2018]

Grey-tailed Tattler in non-breeding plumage taking a mud crab (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Esplanade, Cairns, QLD, December 2018]

Grey-tailed Tattler in non-breeding plumage digging up prey (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Deception Bay, QLD, February 2018]

Call(s)/Song

For this species we have recorded the following call(s)/song. The interpretation of their meaning is our own; comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

grytatt_pb_20200310.m4a	(Top End, NT)	Warning/departure	© PB
grytatt_pb_20200310_2.m4a	(Top End, NT)	? (in-flight)	© PB

More Grey-tailed Tattler sound recordings are available at xeno-canto.org .

These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our contributors. The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species please refer to a field guide.

Would you like to contribute photos or sound recordings to this site? If interested, please CLICK HERE. Credits to contributors are given HERE.

Disclaimer: Comments are always welcome. We give no guarantee that the information presented on these pages is always correct or up-to-date. External links are marked as such and we take no responsibility for the contents of external pages. All images on this site are protected by copyright & used by permission of the respective owners. If you wish to reproduce them or any of the material presented on this website, please contact us: We hereby acknowledge the original custodians of the land which is described on these pages, including the Gomeroi/Gamilaraay people of the North-west Slopes and Plains of NSW, and the traditional owners of other lands and nations within this country. We acknowledge elders past, present and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded.          Last updated: Sat, 29 August 2026, 5:49 +00:00