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Birds of Zihuatanejo

CLASS AVES

-Animals (Kingdom Animalia)

-Chordates (Phylum Chordata)

-Vertebrates (Subphylum Vertebrata)

-Birds (Class Aves)

-Shorebirds and Allies (Order Charadriiformes)

-Sandpipers and Allies (Family Scolopacidae)

-Common and Spotted Sandpipers (Genus Actitis)

-Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularius)


The Spotted Sandpiper is a mall shorebird. I constantly bobs its tail while working edges of streams, ponds, and lakes for invertebrates. They forage in a variety of ways. It picks up items from surface of ground or water; snatches flying insects out of the air; plucks small items from shallow water. On open flats, it may crouch low, stalk slowly, then dash forward to catch insects or small crabs. Breeding adults are brown above, with bold white wing stripe, white below with bold black spots on breast and belly. Fall birds lack black spots below, have brownish smudge at sides of breast.

Spotted Sandpiper

Actitis macularius

Diet

  • Primarily aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates, including insects, beetles, flies, ants, dragonflies, mayflies, caddisflies, spiders, worms, snails, and small crustaceans.

  • Also feeds on small fish, tadpoles, and other aquatic prey when available.

  • Forages by walking along shorelines and constantly bobbing its tail while picking prey from the ground, mud, or shallow water.

Range

  • Breeds throughout most of Canada, the United States, and northern Mexico.

  • Winters from the southern United States through Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America to northern Argentina.

  • Common along the Pacific coast of Mexico, including the Zihuatanejo area, where it is a regular winter visitor and migrant.

  • Found along rivers, lakes, ponds, marshes, beaches, estuaries, mangroves, rocky shorelines, and mudflats.

Male / Female

  • Breeding season: Females are slightly larger and more brightly marked than males, with larger and darker black spots on the white underparts. Females also establish territories and may mate with more than one male (polyandry), while males perform most of the incubation and chick care.

  • Non-breeding season: Both sexes have similar brownish-gray upperparts and white underparts with no black spotting, making them very difficult to distinguish in the field.

  • Juveniles resemble non-breeding adults but have buff-edged wing feathers, giving the upperparts a scaly appearance.

Size

  • Length: 18–20 cm (7.1–7.9 in)

  • Wingspan: 37–40 cm (14.5–15.7 in)

  • Weight: 20–50 g

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