Pectoral Sandpiper (Calidris melanotos) | Species | ||||||||||||||||
 (1/800th sec at f8. Click image for larger version. © David Hastings) DescriptionL: 19 - 23cm; WS: 38 - 44cm The Pectoral Sandpiper resembles a plump Dunlin. It has a brown, streaky breast, a white belly, a slightly down-curved bill and yellow-brown legs. The brown breast-band and white belly are its most distinctive features. It breeds on the tundra of easternmost Russia, across Alaska and into northern Canada. Most birds winter in southern South America. In the British Isles there is an autumnal influx of mainly juvenile birds. Some of these are wind-blown, but is possible that North American and Siberian birds pass through western Europe to over-winter in Africa. Pectoral Sandpipers breed in boggy tundra. They forage for food on grasslands and mudflats. It is regarded as being of Least Concern on the IUCN list. Sightings
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