Birds of Oman home   Bird names   News    Family groups 1-26    Tips   Glossary   Plumage   Thumbnails    General information    Credits    PHOTOS FOR SALE
NON-PASSERINES     1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10     11     12     13     14 15     16     17     18     19     20     21     22     23     24    25    26    PASSERINES
Common names sorted alphabetically: B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   R   S   T   V   W  

8

Common Sandpiper

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

Similar
species

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

Physical description

Click here for a physical description

Taxonomy, classification

See Common Sandpiper at Wikipedia .

Range, habitat

Click here for information on habitat and range

Sightings

Click here for sighting information

Photos

Not the photos you want? Or are you after even better quality? Have a look here.

ADULT

Sex unknown

NON-BREEDING

Frontal view of a Common Sandpiper in non-breeding plumage
[Campus of Sultan Qaboos University, near Muscat, September 2009]

Near-lateral view of a Common Sandpiper in non-breeding plumage digging its prey out of mud
[Campus of Sultan Qaboos University, near Muscat, November 2009]

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

Close-up lateral view of a Common Sandpiper in non-breeding plumage
[Campus of Sultan Qaboos University, near Muscat, November 2009]

Lateral view of a Common Sandpiper in non-breeding plumage hunting under water
[Campus of Sultan Qaboos University, near Muscat, September 2009]

Lateral view of a Common Sandpiper in non-breeding plumage stretching a leg and wing
[Campus of Sultan Qaboos University, near Muscat, September 2009]

Near-dorsal view of a Common Sandpiper in non-breeding plumage
[Campus of Sultan Qaboos University, near Muscat, September 2009]

Dorsal view of a Common Sandpiper in non-breeding plumage
[Campus of Sultan Qaboos University, near Muscat, September 2009]

Dorsal view of a snoozing Common Sandpiper in non-breeding plumage
[Campus of Sultan Qaboos University, near Muscat, February 2010]

Comparison between a Common Sandpiper in non-breeding plumage, right, and a Green Sandpiper
[Campus of Sultan Qaboos University, near Muscat, November 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]

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.