Least Sandpiper (Calidris minutilla) 26 August 2016. Woodwards Cove, Grand Manan, New Brunswick, CA





Juvenile Least Sandpiper with juvenile Semipalmated Sandpipers. Note much browner plumage, different bill shape, lack of primary projection and yellowish legs of Least Sandpiper. Distinction from similar Long-toed Stint (C. subminuta) of Asia is tricky. Least has buffy fringes to median coverts as seen here while Long-toed has these feathers white edged (lower scapulars are white tipped on both). Split supercilium seen here, often claimed as a feature of Long-toed Stint is not reliable. Least is the smallest of the North American sandpipers. It breeds as close as Newfoundland but in New Brunswick it occurs primarily as a migrant. Digiscoped with Panasonic DMC-LX5 | hand-held (no adapter).

References:

Chandler, R. (2009). Shorebirds of North America, Europe, and Asia: A photographic guide. Princeton.

Hicklin, Peter and Cheri L. Gratto-Trevor. (2010). Semipalmated Sandpiper (Calidris pusilla), The Birds of North America (P. G. Rodewald, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America: https://birdsna.org/Species-Account/bna/species/semsan

Nebel, Silke and John M. Cooper. (2008). Least Sandpiper (Calidris minutilla), The Birds of North America (P. G. Rodewald, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America: https://birdsna.org/Species-Account/bna/species/leasan
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