Spotted Sandpiper
Actitis macularius · Sandpipers and Allies
Banding codeSPSA
Keys to identifying it
1Size & shape
About 7.5 in long.
2Color pattern
- Dark spots on a white breast (breeding)
- Constantly teeters its rear
- Orange bill with a dark tip
3Habitat & season
Streams, reservoirs, pond edges
In northern Utah: summer.
Seen most often in July and August.
Share of the region’s research-grade iNaturalist bird observations each month, scaled to this bird’s peak. Highlighted bars are its peak months.
4Voice
A clear, repeated whistle.
“peet-weet!”
iNat 224061418 by Jeffrey Lee (he/him/his) · Oregon City, OR 97045, USA · CC BY
Know it
- Teeters its rear end up and down almost constantly.
- Females arrive first and may mate with several males, who incubate the eggs.
- Flies low over water with stiff, flickering wingbeats.
- A common summer sandpiper of Utah's streams and reservoirs.
Often confused with
Sora- Solitary Sandpiper
From iNaturalist identification data for northern Utah.
From Wikipedia
The spotted sandpiper is a small shorebird. Together with its sister species the common sandpiper, it makes up the genus Actitis. They replace each other geographically; stray birds may settle down with breeders of the other species and hybridize.
Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0