Semipalmated Sandpiper - Ross Feldner "The restlessness of shorebirds, their kinship with the distance and swift seasons, the wistful signal of their voices down the long coastlines of the world make them, for me, the most affecting of wild creatures. I think of them as birds of the wind, as ‘wind birds.'" — Peter Matthiessen, The Wind Birds Like many shorebirds, the Semipalmated Sandpiper is a true marathon flyer. With a wingspan of only 12”, they make nonstop flights of over 3,300 miles from Canada to South America! These sandpipers forage on mudflats, picking up food by sight and feel using their beak. They mainly eat aquatic insects and their larvae, spiders, snails, worms and crustaceans. Like other long distance migrating birds, Semipalmated Sandpipers rely heavily on horseshoe crab eggs during spring migration. Their breeding habitat is the southern tundra in Canada and Alaska near water. They nest on the ground. The male makes several shallow scrapes; the female chooses one and adds grass and other material to line the nest. The name 'Semipalmated' refers to slight webbing between the toes, which allows them to walk over mud flats without sinking. | |
