Sharp-tailed Sandpipers are small waders.
Their plumage
is highly cryptic.
During the breeding
season they have a rufous chest, creamy upper belly and white lower
belly, flanks, vent and undertail coverts. The chest and flanks are
patterned with dark-brown chevrons. The throat is white and lightly
streaked dark-brown. They have a brown eye stripe, whitish eyebrows
and a rich chestnut crown with dark-brown streaking. The back is
dark-brown, with lighter brown edge lining on all feathers.
During the non-breeding
season the colours are duller in general.
The front is striated where it was chevron-patterned during the
breeding
season and the back is almost all grey, rather than brown.
In-flight they have an indistinct wing bar.
The eyes have dark irises. The dark-grey bill is straight and
about as long as the size of the head. The legs and feet are
greyish-yellow. In flight the feet protrude slightly beyond the
tail.
Juveniles
have a prominent rufous chest band and flanks, which are lightly
striated brown. The striation does not reach as far down the sides
as in adults.
The overall distribution of this species can be assessed based
on sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to the
ebird.org
website.
The global distribution of the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper is available
HERE
.
Sharp-tailed Sandpipers are strongly migratory. They breed
preferably in water-logged tundra in north-eastern Asia and
spend the northern winters in South-east Asia or Australasia.
In Arabia Sharp-tailed Sandpipers are only found very rarely,
e.g. when blown off-course by a major storm during their
migration.
Sharp-tailed Sandpipers can be found in various types of wetlands,
in both freshwater and saltwater environments, including
ephemeral wetlands and ephemeral lakes.
Sightings
Click here for sighting information
We have not seen Sharp-tailed Sandpipers in Oman yet, but they have been
spotted by us in Australia.
Photos
No photos available from Oman yet. To go to the Australian page,
click here.
More Sharp-tailed 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.
Description
Classification
Distribution
Sightings
Photos
Breeding
Nest
Eggs
Behaviour
Food
Call/s
Click here for a physical description
are welcome.
.