Teetering, bobbing, and darting along the water’s edge or springing into shallow, stiff-winged flight with a soft weet-weet-weet call, the Spotted Sandpiper is a distinctive and delightful sight. During its breeding season this bird shows a densely-spotted throat and breast (reminiscent of a Wood Thrush’s), a black-tipped orange bill, brown back, and white eyebrow, or supercilium, that extends behind the eye. Even without its eponymous spots, which are absent during the nonbreeding season, the Spotted Sandpiper’s telltale foraging behaviors and flight style make it easy to identify.
The “Spotty” is the most widespread breeding sandpiper in North America, and is also notable for its unusual breeding behavior. Like the Red-necked Phalarope, the Spotted Sandpiper is polyandrous, meaning that females court and compete for mates, then mate and lay eggs, often with multiple males. Meanwhile, the males perform the majority of incubation and brooding duties. This unusual breeding system is found in less than one percent of the world’s birds.
Learn more about the Spotted Sandpiper: https://abcbirds.org/bird/spotted-sandpiper/
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