Shorebirds are always tough for me to identify—so many of them are similar in appearance. When I spotted this little bird on Wednesday at Occoquan Regional Park, I noticed that it was all alone. Half-jokingly, I thought to myself that maybe it is a Solitary Sandpiper (Tringa solitaria). When I later checked my bird identification guide I was shocked to discover that it actually is a Solitary Sandpiper.
According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, however, the name of the Solitary Sandpiper is not completely accurate—”While not truly solitary, it does not migrate in large flocks the way other shorebirds do.” On the same website I also learned the interesting fact of the world’s 85 sandpiper species, only the Solitary Sandpiper and the Green Sandpiper of Eurasia routinely lay eggs in tree nests instead of on the ground.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
I have never heard of this one. Now there is one more shore bird to confuse with all the others 🙂
I too find sandpiper identification really hard! Interesting facts about this one, Mike!
Thanks, Chris. Many of the descriptions of shore birds are comparative, which is not helpful when you see a single one. I leave most of my identification to experts, who are often eager to correct me when I am wrong. 🙂
You will get trained as a birder yet! Just teasing.
Somehow I have learned a lot while trying to identify what I have photographed. However, I refuse to keep a “life list” of birds that I have seen and from my perspective, it doesn’t count in I have seen a bird of a particular species if I have not been able to get a recognizable photo of it.