Keep an eye out near freshwater streams, rivers, and ponds to spot a spotted sandpiper. Plus, learn why they've been nicknamed "Teeter-bob."
Spotted Sandpiper Identification
Identify these shorebirds from a few key field marks — and by taking their amusing nicknames into account. During breeding season, spotted sandpipers feature bold brown spots on their white breast and rich brown plumage on their back. In non-breeding season, the spots on the breast vanish and the brown coloration on the back dulls. In addition, the bird’s beak is orange during breeding season and pale yellow otherwise. Look for a white stripe on the wing in flight.
Spotted sandpipers have also been referred to as “Tip-up,” “Teeter-bob,” and “Teeter-tail.” While these nicknames are funny (and entertaining to say out loud), they inform a key behavior that helps in identification. As the bird moves, it tips forward and backward and bobs its tail up and down.
Learn to identify a solitary sandpiper.
Range and Habitat
During breeding season, spotted sandpipers appear in most of the lower 48 states. In non-breeding season, they migrate to the Gulf coast and California coast.
To spot a spotted sandpiper in the warmer months, head to freshwater and wait. As the most widespread sandpiper in North America, finding them isn’t too tricky. They linger along pebbly edges of rivers, lakes, streams, and ponds. In winter, find them along coastlines and beaches.
Diet: What Do Spotted Sandpipers Eat?
A spotted sandpiper’s diet consists mostly of bugs such as mayflies, beetles, grasshoppers, and flies, as well as snails and worms. They’ll also go after small fish and will lunge at moving prey as well as probing in sand with their beak.
Nesting Habits
Spotted sandpipers are ground nesters. They’ll build a nest close to water, sometimes in gravel, near ponds, or by wetlands. Sometimes nests are begun by the female and finished by the male; this is representative of the spotted sandpiper’s young-rearing process, during which the female lays three to five eggs but doesn’t do much else. Unless they are the last male the female mates with, males end up responsible for all parenting duties including egg incubation.
Calls and Sounds
Spotted sandpipers give a chain of high-pitched weet calls that serves as their song. Listen to the spotted sandpiper’s song, courtesy of Cornell’s Macaulay Library.
Bird sounds courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Sources
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology, “Spotted Sandpiper: Life History“
