Snow billed Sandpiper

Snow billed Sandpiper

The spoon-billed sandpiper (Calidris pygmaea), is a small wader which breeds in north-eastern Russia and winters in Southeast Asia

The most distinctive feature of this species is its spatulate bill. The breeding adult bird is 14–16 cm in length, and has a red-brown head, neck and breast with dark brown streaks.

The spoon-billed sandpiper's breeding habitat is sea coasts and adjacent hinterland on the Chukchi Peninsula and southwards along the isthmus of the Kamchatka peninsula.

It migrates down the Pacific coast through Japan, North Korea, South Korea and China, to its main wintering grounds in South and South-East Asia, where it has been recorded from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore.

Its feeding style consists of a side-to-side movement of the bill as the bird walks forward with its head down. This species nests in June–July on coastal areas in the tundra, choosing locations with grass close to freshwater pools.

This bird is critically endangered, with a current population of fewer than 2500 – probably fewer than 1000 – mature individuals.

The main threats to its survival are habitat loss on its breeding grounds and loss of tidal flats through its migratory and wintering range.