Common Sandpiper
Actitis hypoleucos
Silhouette: Rebecca Groom · PhyloPic
- KingdomAnimalia (Animals)
- PhylumChordata (Chordates)
- ClassAves (Birds)
- OrderCharadriiformes (Shorebirds and Allies)
- FamilyScolopacidae (Sandpipers and Allies)
- GenusActitis (Common and Spotted Sandpipers)
- SpeciesActitis hypoleucos (Common Sandpiper)
About the Common Sandpiper
The common sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) is a small Palearctic wader. This bird and its American sister species, the spotted sandpiper (A. macularia), make up the genus Actitis. They are parapatric and replace each other geographically; stray birds of either species may settle down with breeders of the other and hybridize. Hybridization has also been reported between the common sandpiper and the green sandpiper, a member of the closely related genus Tringa.
The common sandpiper was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Tringa hypoleucos. The species is now placed together with the spotted sandpiper in the genus Actitis that was introduced in 1811 by the German zoologist Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger. The genus name Actitis is from Ancient Greek aktites meaning "coast-dweller" from akte meaning "coast". The specific epithet hypoleucos combines the Ancient Greek hupo meaning "beneath" with leukos meaning "white". The species is monotypic and no subspecies are recognised.
The adult is 18–20 cm (7.1–7.9 in) long with a 32–35 cm (13–14 in) wingspan. It has greyish... Wikipedia →
Recent sightings of Common Sandpiper in Cévennes National Park
LIVEiNaturalistClosest Relatives at Cévennes National Park
Common Greenshank
Tringa nebularia
Jack Snipe
Lymnocryptes minimus
Green Sandpiper
Tringa ochropus
Wood Sandpiper
Tringa glareola
Spotted Redshank
Tringa erythropus
Eurasian Woodcock
Scolopax rusticola
Eurasian Stone-curlew
Burhinus oedicnemus
Yellow-legged Gull
Larus michahellis
Black-bellied Plover
Pluvialis squatarola
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Larus fuscus
Eurasian Dotterel
Charadrius morinellus
Black-headed Gull
Chroicocephalus ridibundus
Global Distribution
Warmer areas are where this animal is recorded most often.