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8

Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) Alternate name(s): "Summer Snipe" Size: 19-21 cm; wing span 35-41 cm Weight: 33-70 g

Oman: Family Group 8 Family Group 8 Table Ruddy Turnstone Green Sandpiper Sharp-tailed Sandpiper Terek Sandpiper Common Sandpiper Common Greenshank Marsh Sandpiper Bar-tailed Godwit Black-tailed Godwit Whimbrel Eurasian Curlew Temminck's Stint Sanderling Thumbnails page Classification table Index of bird names 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 Common Sandpipers are small waders. Their plumage is cryptic. When seen in Arabia, they are in eclipse plumage. During the non-breeding season they have a whitish throat, light grey-brown upper chest with darker grey-brown sides, while the rest of the front, including shoulder bars, is white. The sides of the head are grey-brown, with a darker eye stripe and crown and a lighter eyebrow and cheeks and ear coverts. The nape of the neck is also grey-brown. The back, including the wings, is darker grey-brown, with a faint light-brown bar pattern that is also visible on the sides of the tail. In-flight they show a broad white wing bar and white terminal spots on the outer tail feathers. During the breeding season, the sides of the head and the neck show more streaking, while the bar pattern on the back and wings becomes bolder and more prominent, with more brown hues visible than grey. The eyes have dark irises. The grey bill is straight and a bit longer than the size of the head. The legs and feet are olive-grey. In flight the feet do not protrude beyond the tip of the tail. Juveniles roughly resemble non-breeding adults, but they have a crisper, tidier plumage. Twitcher's tip Compared with Green Sandpipers, Common Sandpipers are smaller, have visible white shoulder bars and in-flight show white wing bars. 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 Common Sandpiper at Wikipedia .

Range, habitat 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 Common Sandpiper is available HERE . Common Sandpipers are a migratory species that can be seen in flocks during migration. They breed across most of temperate and subtropical Europe and Asia and spend the northern winters in Africa, Arabia, southern Asia and Australia. In Arabia, on passage between Africa and Asia, Common Sandpipers can be found along the edges of different types of waters, such as ponds, lakes, running streams or beach front. Hence, they are mostly seen on the near-coastal fringe of the peninsula, including the coastline of Oman. Common Sandpipers are usually found along beaches, but also around fresh water ponds and river banks.

Sightings Click here for sighting information Common Sandpipers have been spotted by us on the Campus of Sultan Qaboos University in the time frame August 2009 to February 2010. Twitcher's tip For those who have difficulties telling Common Sandpipers and Green Sandpipers apart, there is a photo below showing both species together.

Photos

ADULT

Sex unknown

NON-BREEDING

Frontal view of a Common Sandpiper
[Campus of Sultan Qaboos University, near Muscat, September 2009]

Dorsal view of a Common Sandpiper
[Campus of Sultan Qaboos University, near Muscat, September 2009]

Common Sandpiper (right) and Green Sandpiper (left) seen next to each other
[Campus of Sultan Qaboos University, near Muscat, November 2009]

Common Sandpipers will not tire running around a small pond all day long
[Campus of Sultan Qaboos University, near Muscat, November 2009]

Common Sandpipers also dig their prey out of mud
[Campus of Sultan Qaboos University, near Muscat, November 2009]

Sometimes you've got to be ambitious...
[Campus of Sultan Qaboos University, near Muscat, September 2009]

... and daring
[Campus of Sultan Qaboos University, near Muscat, September 2009]

Common Sandpiper on its pedestal
[Campus of Sultan Qaboos University, near Muscat, September 2009]

Time for a snooze
[Campus of Sultan Qaboos University, near Muscat, February 2010]

...and some gymnastics
[Campus of Sultan Qaboos University, near Muscat, September 2009]

Additional information

More photos were taken by us in Australia.

Behaviour

Common Sandpipers are well-known for bobbing their tails. This proved to be a major loss of potentially good photos during the course of our observations...

Food, Diet

Like other members of the Tringa, Xenus and Actitis families we have seen Common Sandpipers hunt insects (in particular flies) and other small animals along the edges of shallow water. Common Sandpipers were seen by us around fresh water.

Common Sandpiper on the point of attack - this fly, in front of the bird's bill, did not have long to live
[Campus of Sultan Qaboos University, near Muscat, November 2009]

Here another fly is taken by a Common Sandpiper...
[Campus of Sultan Qaboos University, near Muscat, November 2009]

Gotcha!
[Campus of Sultan Qaboos University, near Muscat, February 2010]

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.

comspip_dw_20200807.m4a	(Poland)	Contact calls (Q&A)	© DW
comspip_dw_20190909.m4a	(Poland)	Contact calls (Q&A, in-flight)	© DW

More Common Sandpiper 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 web site, 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: Sun, 8 September 2019, 23:45 +00:00