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Green Sandpipers are small waders. Their plumage is cryptic. When seen in Australia, they are in non-breeding plumage. During the non-breeding season they a grey head, except for some light striation on the throat and white eye-rings. The upper chest is greyish-brown. The rest of the front, from the lower chest to the undertail coverts, is white. The crown, nape of the neck and back are greyish-brown, with sparse white speckles on mantle and wings. In-flight they do not show a wing bar, but a white rump and uppertail with three black bars. During the breeding season, head and neck show more white streaking and the spot pattern on the back becomes bolder. The eyes have dark irises. The olive-grey bill has a dark-grey tip, is straight and a bit longer than the size of the head. The legs and feet are olive-grey. In flight the toes of the feet protrude beyond the tip of the tail. Juveniles roughly resemble non-breeding adults, but they have a darker general appearance, less prominent eye-rings and a tidier spot pattern.

Twitcher's tip

Compared with Common Sandpipers, Green Sandpipers are larger and do not have white shoulder bars or wing bars. A photo taken in Oman showing the two species together in non-breeding plumage is available HERE.

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.

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 Green Sandpiper is available HERE .

Green Sandpipers are a strongly migratory species. They breed throughout subarctic Europe and Asia and spend the northern winters in southern Europe, parts of Arabia, the Indian subcontinent, South-east Asia, and tropical Africa.

In Australia Green Sandpipers are sometimes reported as rare vagrants to the Darwin, NT, area.

Green Sandpipers have a strong preference for fresh water habitats, often in wooded areas, such as bogs and marshes. On migration they are also often found in roadside ditches and the edges of ponds, again often with concealing vegetation.

H. Mouritsen reports spotting one and two Green Sandpipers, respectively, in different locations near Darwin, NT, in October 2015.

We have not yet spotted Green Sandpipers in Australia, but have seen them in Europe and in Oman.