Dunlin — Calidris alpina

Abstract

he Dunlin is among the most cosmopolitan and well studied of all the small sandpipers. It is a familiar species throughout the year, either in its striking breeding plumage of black belly and rufous back (hence its previous name, Redbacked Sandpiper) or during winter when it is gray and nondescript but occurs in flocks of thousands or tens of thousands. As many as nine races of Dunlin breed in the Holarctic, three of them in North America, where this monogamous, territorial species breeds on subarctic and arctic coastal tundra from southwestern Alaska north and east to James Bay, Canada. During winter it occurs mostly on large estuaries along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of the United States and northern Mexico; some Alaska birds spend the winter in coastal East Asia.