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A wood sanspiper trekking along the water's edge. It's a medium-sized wading bird with pale spangling on its dark back, a pale belly and a strong, pale line above the eye

Wood sandpiper © Pete Richman

Wood sandpiper

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This wading bird is mainly a visitor on its spring and autumn migration, though a small number nest in Scotland.

Enw gwyddonol

Tringa glareola

Pryd i'w gweld

April - October

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Stats

Length: 19-21cm
Wingspan: 36-40cm
Weight: 50-90g
Classified in the UK as Amber under the Birds of Conservation Concern 5: the Red List for Birds (2021). Protected in the UK under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981.

Ynghylch

The wood sandpiper is mainly a passage visitor to the UK, stopping off to refuel on its migration in spring and autumn. It's usually seen slowly picking its way around the margins of a shallow wetland, dipping its beak into the mud or water as it searches for food. A small number nest in boggy parts of northern Scotland, but the core breeding range is on marshes and wooded bogs across northern Europe and Asia. They leave their breeding grounds in summer and spend the winter in Africa, mainly south of the Sahara Desert.

What to look for

A small, elegant wading bird, with fairly long, yellowish-green legs and a slender, medium-length bill. It has a pale brown back, spangled with large, pale spots. Its breast is smudged with dark markings, which fade to a white belly with no clear-cut border. A key feature is the strong, pale line above the eye (the supercilium), which reaches from the base of the beak to well behind the eye. In flight, it shows pale underwings and a white rump, with narrow black bars on its tail.

The green sandpiper looks very similar, but has a darker back with smaller pale spots. Its supercilium is shorter, not extending boldly behind the eye. There is also a clear-cut border between its dark breast and whiter belly. In flight, it shows a dark underwing and thick black bars on its tail.

Where to find

Passage visitors could be found anywhere in the UK, but tend to be more common in the east of England and Scotland. A few pairs nest in northern Scotland.

Roeddech chi yn gwybod?

On their southern African wintering grounds, wood sandpipers feed around inland wetlands. These habitats are often temporary and unpredictable, quickly drying up. Studies have found that wood sandpipers moult their flight feathers more slowly than other bird species that winter on coastal sites, where food is more predictable. It's thought this may be an adaptation to help them deal with the unpredictable habitat, enabling them to fly off in search of a new wetland.