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Identification
The common sandpiper, “Actitis hypoleucos“ is about 19–22 cm in length. Upper parts are brown olive, including rump and tail; white underparts, with streaked breast; wings with a white band; dark bill; and greenish legs. The Common Sandpiper is a migrant that breeds further south in the Palearctic than any other member of the wader family Scolopacidae or Charadriidae which regularly migrates to southern Africa.
Breeding
The breeding range stretches from about 45°N in the deciduous forest zone to the northern limit of the coniferous forest zone at about 70°N, and from Ireland to eastern Siberia. It migrates to Africa south of the Sahara, southern Asia, and Australasia. It occurs throughout southern Africa where there is suitable open water.
Records in the arid western half of the region are therefore scattered, particularly on the deep sands of the Kalahari in Botswana. The highest reporting rates were from the Okavango Delta, Zimbabwe, Transvaal, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, and the coastal regions of the Cape Province. While feeding, it is generally encountered singly or in loose associations among a few individuals.
Common Sandpipers congregate in the evenings to roost; the largest recorded group size in southern Africa is c. 100 birds, roosting on a large rock in the Save River. The population breeding in Europe was estimated to exceed one million individuals but is decreasing. The size of the population breeding in Asia is unknown. The coastal population in southern Africa was estimated by Summers et al to be 2000 birds; the size of the population at inland localities is unknown, but must far exceed this number.
Similar Species
You can recall a Green Sandpiper, which is bigger, has a white rump, and lacks a white line on the wing. Also, another type of spotted sandpiper (Actitis macularia) is 19 cm and very common summer resident of freshwater and saltwater bodies throughout most of the United States. These sandpipers are most often encountered singly but may form small flocks.
Sexing
The plumage of both sexes alike. It has distinctive plumage and behavior, both while feeding (it constantly bobs its rear half) and in-flight (after a few flickering wing beats, a downbeat is arrested just below horizontal and it glides a short distance).
Aging
There are three types of age that can be recognized:
Juvenile with feathers on upperparts, scapulars, and tertials with a narrow and rounded subterminal bar bordered by buff at the tip, without streaks. The wing coverts are heavily barred brown; central tail feathers without short bars or spots at sides; fresh flight feathers and always with one age; some birds have legs tinged pink. 2nd year only if some juvenile feathers have been retained on median wing coverts, tails, or flight feathers.
Adult with feathers on upperparts with a dark streak; tertials streaked; wing coverts with a dark subterminal bar, sometimes with several spaced dark bars; central tail feathers with a dark subterminal bar and short bars or spots at sides; flight feathers with two ages and, if only one, with eroded feathers; with grey greenish legs.
Moult
Complete post-breeding moult, starting in breeding areas and finishing in wintering quarters. Partial post-juvenile moult, but some birds can retain median wing coverts and flight and tail feathers, usually starting in wintering quarters. Both types of age have a pre-breeding moult, between February and May, including most of the body feathers and some wing coverts; sometimes also the tail. This is a summer visitor breeding in rivers in mountainous areas and widely distributed on a passage in wet places throughout the region.
Habitat
Common sandpipers occur along all kinds of open, wet edges, sometimes being the only waders on a stretch of shoreline. Favored localities are streams, rivers, marshes, farm dams, sewage works, vleis, coastal lagoons, and the upper reaches of tidal estuaries. It also frequents temporary puddles, e.g., on roads, and it will forage on any damp ground after heavy rain, regularly venturing into woodlands. Where it occurs along the marine coast, it is often associated with freshwater seeps.
Movements: Breeding at 60°N commences about mid-May, and birds leave by the second half of August. Arrival in southern Africa is from late July and early August onwards. In the middle of the dry season, wetland habitat availability is much below maximum inland.
A few birds remain in southern Africa throughout the austral winter, particularly at inland sites, but relatively fewer overwinter as compared to predominantly coastal waders. There are numerous examples of birds returning in subsequent years to the same or adjoining localities in Zimbabwe, Namibia, and the Cape Province. It is territorial at its non-breeding sites, suggesting that individuals might hold the same territories annually.
Inter-specific relationships:
It regularly forages on floating objects, including the backs of wallowing hippopotami, and may take leeches from their skin.
Historical distribution and conservation:
It is catholic in its choice of wetland sites during the non-breeding season, adapting well to artificial wetlands such as farm dams and sewage works. Thus, no conservation action is required while the common sandpiper is in southern Africa.
