Lone Solitary Sandpiper

During the spring quite a few birds migrate through New Jersey including but not limited to shorebirds like this Solitary Sandpiper. But it's not just New Jersey that's flyover country for these birds; other than a few that overwinter in southern Texas, the lower 48 states are all basically just used during migration. This bird was no doubt hoping to get a bite to eat as it journeyed north to its mostly Canadian breeding grounds. As their name implies, they're frequently seen alone.

Though they mostly eat small invertebrates, I wouldn't be surprised if things like tadpoles and small fish get eaten if the opportunity presents itself. Without a strong beak or talons to tear stuff up, they probably only eat what they can swallow whole, and their options are presumably much more limited than those of a much larger bird like a Great Blue Heron.

The sandpipers are a fairly large family of birds distributed across the world and consisting of 13 genera. Many of the species don't have "sandpiper" in their name, like the Solitary Sandpiper's yellowlegs cousins (Lesser and Greater). Others aren't obviously shorebirds, like the American Woodcock.

Though Solitary Sandpipers like the 1 in my picture usually forage in shallow water, they get their sandpiper name from cousins that forage in sand or mud, leaving little holes that are (somewhat) similar to pipes.

The Solitary Sandpiper and one European cousin are the only sandpipers that generally don't nest on the ground. Instead they'll refurbish old nests built by passerines, including but not limited to the American Robin.

April 18, 2023 at Duke Farms
Photo 272141015, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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