Marsh Sandpiper

Marsh SandPiper (Tringa stagnatilis) is one of the most elegant of waders, rather like a miniature Greenshank and easily mistaken for that species when alone. It has a more slender build, however, and the bill is proportionately shorter, straighter and more slender whilst the legs are proportionately longer. It usually occurs singly but in a suitable feeding site several birds may be gathered together. Although showing a preference for freshwater feeding, it will join the other birds on the mudflats. It may be seen along river banks, in flooded fields and the evaporation beds of sewage works. It will wade up to its belly in water, sweeping around with its beak for prey. In the 1930s, it was regarded as a very rare bird but is now fairly common in Singapore.



Marsh Sandpiper (Tringa stagnatilis)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Scolopacidae
Genus: Tringa
Species: T. stagnatilis


The Marsh Sandpiper, Tringa stagnatilis, is a small wader. It is a rather small shank, and breeds in open grassy steppe and taiga wetlands from easternmost Europe to central Asia.

It resembles a small elegant Greenshank, with a long fine bill and very long yellowish legs. Like the Greenshank, it is greyish brown in breeding plumage, paler in winter, and has a white wedge up its back that is visible in flight. However, it is more closely related to the Common Redshank and the Wood Sandpiper (Pereira & Baker, 2005). Together, they form a group of smallish shanks which tend to have red or reddish legs, and in breeding plumage are generally a subdued, light brown above with some darker mottling, with a pattern of somewhat diffuse small brownish spots on the breast and neck.

It is a migratory species, with majority of birds wintering in Africa, and India with fewer migrating to Southeast Asia and Australia. They prefer to winter on fresh water wetlands such as swamps and lakes and are usually seen singly or in small groups.

These birds forage by probing in shallow water or on wet mud. They mainly eat insects, and similar small prey.

The Marsh Sandpiper is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.



More Links
Bird Guides: Tringa stagnatilis
Marsh Sandpiper
Maps of the birds of the Western Palearctic Region
Pictures Gallery of Tringa stagnatilis
Waders Wildlife and Birding Tours