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Dunlin (Calidris alpina) German name(s): "Alpenstrandläufer" Size: 17-21 cm; wing span 32-36 cm Body mass: 45-65 g Wing loading [g/cm2]: 0.36-0.54

Europe: Family Group 8 Family Group 8 Table Ruddy Turnstone Common Snipe Eurasian Woodcock Bar-tailed Godwit Black-tailed Godwit Eurasian Curlew Whimbrel Little Curlew Sanderling Temminck's Stint Little Stint Dunlin Purple Sandpiper Marsh Sandpiper Common Greenshank Common Redshank Spotted Redshank Lesser Yellowlegs Wood Sandpiper Curlew Sandpiper Common Sandpiper Green Sandpiper Buff-breasted Sandpiper Ruff Thumbnails page Family group table Index of bird names European 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 Dunlins are small waders. Their plumage is highly cryptic. During the non-breeding season their plumage is plain in various shades of white to grey. The head is streaked grey, with inconspicuous off-white supercilia, dark-grey lores and plain grey ear coverts. The front/underparts are all-white, except for some grey streaking on the chest. The head, from lores backward, and the entire back are plain-grey, with inconspicuous darker-grey quills and lighter-grey edge lining on the wing coverts. During the breeding season the cap becomes brown-grey streaked, with more prominent off-white supercilia and grey/light-grey streaking on the sides of the head, around the neck and down the chest. While the lower belly, vent and undertail coverts remain white, what makes the Dunlin unmistakeable is their large black, roughly trapezium-shaped belly patch. In race "alpina" this patch is solid-black, while in race "schinzii" it is scalloped white. The back and the wing coverts turn dark-grey, with wide pale-rufous and grey edge lining. The flight feathers are dark-grey. The irises are dark-brown. The length of the black, slightly down-curved bill varies across the species, with a length of about the size of the head in race "schinzii" and somewhat more than a head's length for race "alpina". The legs and feet are dark-grey. The correct identification of waders ("shorebirds"), e.g. of the Calidris, Tringa, Actitis etc. 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 Dunlin 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 Dunlin is available HERE . There are 10 races of the Dunlin, which is a mostly migratory species. Their overall breeding range is circumpolar, spanning all the way from Greenland and Iceland via northern Europe and Asia to far-eastern Siberia, the islands of the Bering Sea, parts of Alaska and central northern Canada. The various races spend the northern winters along the central/western European, West African, Mediterranean coastlines (races "schinzii", "artica", "alpina"), in southern Asia Minor, Arabia and along the North coast of the Gulf of Persia eastward into the northern coastal regions of the Indian Ocean as far as the Indian/Pakistani border region (race "alpina"). Race "sakhalina" has its winter grounds from the Korean peninsula to the southern tip of Vietnam, while race "pacifica" overwinters along both coastlines of the North American continent, from the Carolinas and California, respectively, to Mexico. There are only small areas in Europe where Dunlins are sedentary, namely on the islands around northern Scotland and along the Danish North Sea coast. All these sedentary Dunlins belong to race "schinzii", which breeds on the British Isles, the West coast of Denmark and around the Baltic Sea. Everywhere else Dunlins are migratory. Dunlins, nominate race "alpina", are summer breeding migrants to the Norwegian Atlantic coastline, the Kola peninsula and the north-western Russian coastline. During their migration they can be found basically everywhere westward of a line connecting Helsinki, Finland, with the western Black Sea coastline, except the highest mountain regions, but most migrants will follow the western European coastline towards West Africa. Dunlins breed in a variety of habitats, from subarctic and arctic coastal wetlands to bogs, marshes, wet grasslands and tundra. During the winter months Dunlins have a strong preference for coastal habitats.

Sightings Click here for sighting information Race "alpina" M. Eaton reports spotting a Dunlin, nominate race "alpina", near Tromso airport, Tromso, Norway, in June 2018. A. Sarok spotted Dunlins, race "alpina", in Vojvodina, Serbia, in the timeframe 2010-2024. Race "schinzii" G. Pinelas reports spotting a Dunlin, race "schinzii", in Lagoa de Albufeira, near Sesimbra, Setubal, Portugal, in October 2017. J. Pires reports finding Dunlins, race "schinzii", in the Tejo estuary, Portugal, in the timeframe December 2017 to April 2018, in Palhais, Barreiro, Setubal, Portugal, in January 2018, and at Moita do Ribatejo, Setubal, Portugal, in November 2018. More were found at Salinas do Brito, Tejo estuary, Portugal, in April and July 2019.

Photos

Race "alpina"

ADULT

BREEDING

MALE

Near-lateral view of a male(?) Dunlin in breeding plumage (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Near Tromso airport, Tromso, Norway, June 2018]

Lateral view of a Dunlin in breeding plumage; note the extensive, solid-black belly patch (photo courtesy of A. Sarok)
[Vojvodina, Serbia, date unknown]

Lateral view of a Dunlin in breeding plumage (photo courtesy of A. Sarok)
[Vojvodina, Serbia, date unknown]

Lateral view of a hunched male(?) Dunlin in breeding plumage (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Near Tromso airport, Tromso, Norway, June 2018]

Near-dorsal view of a male(?) Dunlin in breeding plumage (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Near Tromso airport, Tromso, Norway, June 2018]

FEMALE

Lateral view of a female(?) Dunlin in breeding plumage; note the scarcity of black on the belly (photo courtesy of A. Sarok)
[Vojvodina, Serbia, date unknown]

Race "schinzii"

ADULT

BREEDING

Sex unknown

Frontal view of a Dunlin in breeding plumage; note that the belly patch of race "schinzii" is not solid-black
(photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Tejo estuary, Portugal, April 2019]

Frontal view of a Dunlin in breeding plumage (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Salinas do Brito, Tejo estuary, Portugal, July 2019]

Near-frontal view of a Dunlin in breeding plumage (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Sado river estuary, Mourisca, Setubal, Portugal, May 2025]

Near-lateral view of a Dunlin in breeding plumage (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Salinas do Brito, Tejo estuary, Portugal, July 2019]

Lateral view of a Dunlin in breeding plumage (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Salinas do Brito, Tejo estuary, Portugal, July 2019]

Lateral/dorsal view of two Dunlins in breeding plumage (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Salinas do Brito, Tejo estuary, Portugal, May 2024]

Near-dorsal view of a Dunlin in breeding plumage, left, with a Curlew Sandpiper moulting into non-breeding plumage
(photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Salinas do Brito, Tejo estuary, Portugal, July 2019]

Small flock of Dunlins, mostly in breeding plumage, together with a few other waders (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Tejo estuary, Portugal, April 2018]

Lateral view of Dunlins in breeding plumage, in flight (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Lagoa de Obidos, Obidos, Leiria, Portugal, May 2022]

NON-BREEDING

Sex unknown

Near-frontal view of a Dunlin in non-breeding plumage taking a bath (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Palhais, Barreiro, Setubal, Portugal, December 2017]

Lateral view of a Dunlin in non-breeding plumage (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Palhais, Barreiro, Setubal, Portugal, January 2018]

Lateral view of a Dunlin in non-breeding plumage (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Palhais, Barreiro, Setubal, Portugal, December 2017]

Lateral view of a Dunlin in non-breeding plumage roosting together with a flock of Common Ringed Plovers
(photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Montijo, Palhais, Setubal, Portugal, March 2019]

Near-dorsal view of a Dunlin in non-breeding plumage spreading its wings (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Herdade do Esporao, Reguengos de Monsaraz, Evora, Portugal, January 2023]

Flock of roosting waders, almost all of which are Dunlins in non-breeding plumage and juveniles (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Tejo estuary, Portugal, March 2018]

Flock of roosting Dunlins in non-breeding plumage (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Vila Franca de Xira, Tejo estuary, Portugal, January 2025]

Three Dunlins in non-breeding plumage in flight (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Moita do Ribatejo, Setubal, Portugal, November 2018]

IMMATURE/JUVENILE

Frontal view of a juvenile Dunlin (photo courtesy of G. Pinelas)
[Lagoa de Albufeira, near Sesimbra, Setubal, Portugal, October 2017]

Near-frontal view of a Dunlin; the brown around the head and neck and the black spots down the front and flanks indicate that this is a juvenile (photo courtesy of G. Pinelas)
[Lagoa de Albufeira, near Sesimbra, Setubal, Portugal, October 2017]

Near-lateral view of a juvenile Dunlin (photo courtesy of G. Pinelas)
[Lagoa de Albufeira, near Sesimbra, Setubal, Portugal, October 2017]

Near-lateral view of a juvenile Dunlin (photo courtesy of G. Pinelas)
[Lagoa de Albufeira, near Sesimbra, Setubal, Portugal, October 2017]

Lateral view of a juvenile Dunlin (photo courtesy of G. Pinelas)
[Lagoa de Albufeira, near Sesimbra, Setubal, Portugal, October 2017]

Lateral view of a juvenile Dunlin (photo courtesy of G. Pinelas)
[Lagoa de Albufeira, near Sesimbra, Setubal, Portugal, October 2017]

Lateral view of a juvenile Dunlin (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Tejo estuary, Salinas do Vasa Sacos, Benavente, Santarem, Portugal, August 2022]

Lateral view of a snoozing juvenile Dunlin (photo courtesy of G. Pinelas)
[Lagoa de Albufeira, near Sesimbra, Setubal, Portugal, October 2017]

Behaviour

Social behaviour: Communal?

Mobility: Migratory

Elementary unit: Pair/flock

Outside the breeding season Dunlins can form substantial flocks.

Flock of Dunlins in non-breeding plumage in flight (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Sado estuary, Portugal, January 2023]

Food, Diet

Near-lateral view of a Dunlin in non-breeding plumage digging up something (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Salinas da Fuseta, Olhao, Faro, ALgarve, Portugal, November 2021]

Close-up near-lateral view of a Dunlin in non-breeding plumage gobbling up its prey (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Salinas da Fuseta, Olhao, Faro, ALgarve, Portugal, November 2021]

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.

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