Least Sandpiper

Calidris minutilla

The Least Sandpiper is the smallest of the group we call peeps. Western and Semipalmated Sandpipers make up the rest of the Small Peeps group. These birds fly north each spring to breed in the far north of North America from Alaska to eastern Canada. After the breeding season, they roam south. They spend the winter anywhere from coastal regions of the USA and south to northern South America and even as far as Chile.

Of the three classic peeps, this bird’s legs are greenish yellow (unless covered in mud). This helps in distinguishing it from the black legs of the Western and Semipalmated Sandpipers. We can find them in either salt or freshwater environments, but of these three peeps, it is the most likely to be found in freshwater habitats. Least Sandpipers weigh in at one ounce and are the smallest shorebird in the world.

Today’s science regards the Least Sandpiper as monotypic (i.e. no subspecies).

Both parents incubate, but most of the child-rearing falls to the males. According to researchers, females commonly leave the breeding grounds before the young fledge. Sometimes, even before the eggs hatch.

In the USA, I’ve met these birds in California, Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Outside of the lower forty-eight, I found them 600 miles off the coast of Colima (Mexico) on Isla Socorro. I’ve also met them on their breeding grounds in the Yukon Territory of northern Canada.

Range Map for Least Sandpiper
Range Map

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