How to Identify aDunlin

Calidris alpina · 6.3–8.7 in (16–22 cm)

Male vs. female

Rusty back and crown with a bold black patch across the belly in breeding plumage; plain gray-brown in winter. Sexes look alike.

Like the male but averaging slightly longer-billed.

Male photo: Charles Homler d/b/a FocusOnWildlife / Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Second photo: Stephan Sprinz / Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Quick ID

A hunch-backed sandpiper with a long drooping bill and, in summer, a solid black belly patch.

Sanderling — Paler, with a short straight bill and no belly patch.

Western Sandpiper — Smaller with a finer bill and arrow-shaped flank marks in summer.

A harsh, grating, rasping "kreep" given in flight.

Winters in dense flocks that wheel in tight synchrony, flashing dark and light as the whole group turns.

Mudflats, beaches and estuaries in winter; Arctic tundra in summer.

Depending on where in North America you are, it is a winter visitor and a passage migrant, seen mainly in spring and autumn.

Marine worms, small molluscs, crustaceans and insect larvae.

It was once called the Red-backed Sandpiper, and its old name Dunlin simply means "little dun-coloured bird".

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