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WetlandScrapeMedium · 132 g
What the Ruff sounds like
ID tip
The ruff has a distinctive pot-bellied appearance, with a small head, medium-length bill, longish neck and heavy body. It has long legs that are variable in colour, being dark greenish in juveniles, pink to orange in adults with some males having reddish orange legs only during the breeding season. In flight, it has a deeper, slower wing stroke than other waders of a similar size, and displays a thin, indistinct white bar on the wing, and white ovals on the sides of the tail. The species shows sexual dimorphism.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
When to see the Ruff
One bar for each month. Filled bars are the 8 months with records; pale bars are months with none. The wide bar is August, the month with the most records.
Where to see the Ruff
The map shades 157 countries with regular records, and 15 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.
Recorded as a rare visitor in Brazil, New Zealand, Guatemala, Belize, Côte d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Cayman Islands, Panama, Micronesia, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, British Virgin Islands, Curaçao, Dominican Republic, Grenada.
About the Ruff
The ruff is a medium-sized wading bird that breeds in marshes and wet meadows across northern Eurasia. This highly gregarious sandpiper is migratory and sometimes forms huge flocks in its winter grounds, which include southern and western Europe, Africa, southern Asia and Australia.
Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Easily confused with
Semipalmated SandpiperCalidris pusillaIt is a small sandpiper, 15–18 centimetres (6–7 inches) long and weighing around 18–51.5 grams (0.63–1.82 ounces).
Western SandpiperCalidris mauriAdults have dark legs and a short, thin, dark bill, thinner at the tip.
Pectoral SandpiperCalidris melanotosThis bird looks similar to the widely sympatric sharp-tailed sandpiper (C. acuminata), which is not however a member of the same clade in the genus.
Side by side: Ruff vs Sanderling · Ruff vs Semipalmated Sandpiper · Ruff vs Western Sandpiper · Pectoral Sandpiper vs Ruff
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