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GrasslandScrapeMedium · 65 g
What the Purple Sandpiper sounds like
ID tip
Adults have short yellow legs and a medium thin dark bill with a yellow base. The body is dark on top with a slight purplish gloss and mainly white underneath. The breast is smeared with grey and the rump is black. They measure 20–22 cm (7.9–8.7 in) in length and 42–46 cm (17–18 in) across the wings, and weight is from 50–105 g (1.8–3.7 oz).
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
When to see the Purple Sandpiper
One bar for each month. Filled bars are the 8 months with records; pale bars are months with none. The wide bar is January, the month with the most records.
Where to see the Purple Sandpiper
The map shades 30 countries with regular records, and 3 more in a lighter tone where the bird turns up only as a stray. Everything unshaded has no records. Countries are listed below the map.
About the Purple Sandpiper
The purple sandpiper is a small shorebird in the sandpiper family Scolopacidae. This is a hardy sandpiper that breeds in the arctic and subarctic regions of Eurasia and North America and winters further south on the Atlantic coast.
Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Easily confused with
Temminck's StintCalidris temminckiiThese birds are very small waders, at 13.5–15 cm (5.3–5.9 in) length.
White-rumped SandpiperCalidris fuscicollisThe white-rumped sandpiper is a relatively small bird measuring only 15–18 cm (5.9–7.1 in), with a wingspan of 36–38 cm (14–15 in).
Red-necked StintCalidris ruficollisThese birds are among the smallest of waders, very similar to the little stint, Calidris minuta, with which they were once considered conspecific.
Side by side: Purple Sandpiper vs White-rumped Sandpiper · Purple Sandpiper vs Temminck's Stint · Purple Sandpiper vs Red-necked Stint
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