Bird Sightings: Purple Sandpiper

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Bird Sightings : Hebrides : Purple Sandpiper

Purple Sandpiper

Calidris maritima
Gaelic: Luatharan-rioghail

Photograph © John Dempsey
Ardvule - North Uist - Outer Hebrides (Western Isles)
16th October, 2006

Calidris maritima - Erolia maritima

UK winter visitor, Scarce breeder

21,700 birds wintering in UK (RSPB)

Medium-sized shorebird, larger, chunkier & darker than dunlin, mostly dark-grey above with purplish gloss, greyish breast, whitish below, black rump, yellow base to short & thin downcurved bill, short yellow-orange legs. Flight: shows thin white wing-stripe

Gregarious & approachable

Habitat: Stony beaches, mussel beds, by piers, rocky coast

Diet: Insects, spiders, crustaceans, and plants

Breeds: Tundra, Arctic Islands, Canada, North-west Europe (2 Scottish sites: secret keep from egg-thieves & disturbance)

Winters: Ice-free Atlantic coasts,

Listen: purple sandpiper RSPB site

Similar birds: dunlin, turnstone

"There is an English report of a purple sandpiper hybridisation with a dunlin -1994 "

See a close-up of a purple sandpiper or one of a purple sandpiper in it's Hebridean habitat by Peter Zerfahs.

Other local bird photographs

John's Blog of his two week stay in the Uists

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