h Sanderling at Kuala Baram by SINGH HSS, Amar - Borneo Bird Images

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SCOLOPACIDAE Snipe,Curlews, Stints, Phalaropes > Sanderling

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image 6874 of Sanderling

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Sanderling

Latin Name : Calidris alba

Site Name : Kuala Baram

Photographer : SINGH HSS, Amar

Date : 2013-09-09

Notes : RemarksI
I had posted these as possible Red-necked Stints (Calidris ruficollis) but they are Sanderlings. I had considered Sanderlings but had not seen them land and had no real size comparison. I should have realised from the overall pale appearance and "more grey-white tipping to the upper parts" (Hayman, Marchant, Prater. Shorebirds: Identification Guide to the Waders of the World).

Dave Bakewell was very kind to respond and in our dialogue he said : “Yes, they're Sanderlings. You already mentioned the white-looking head. They also have a much broader wingbar than stints. We don't get many on the west coast of the peninsula as they're sandy beach specialists. Unlike other calidrids, they lack a hind toe, an adaptation thought to facilitate rapid running, which is what they do a lot of!

I think it must be an adult because:

1. Those unmoulted median coverts are not juvenile feathers (so presumably breeding plumage)

2. The outer primaries and inner secondaries don't look very badly worn, as they would if they were a year old.”

Amar