Least Sandpiper

Calidris minutilla

eBird provides this description for the Least Sandpiper: Tiny brownish sandpiper. At all ages, most easily distinguished from other small sandpipers by darker, more brownish coloration. Juveniles are particularly bright with rusty tones on the upperparts. Also note fine-tipped bill and yellowish legs, but beware legs can be covered with dark mud and other peeps (like Semipalmated Sandpiper) can rarely show slightly greenish legs. Habitat and behavior are helpful supporting clues, too. Typically forages in a crouched posture with bent legs, picking for invertebrates in the mud. Often in small loose groups, but not in large, tight flocks like Semipalmated or Western Sandpipers. Prefers drier mud, often on the higher edges of mudflats or small patches of water in marshes. Widespread and common, especially inland. Breeds in various wetland habitats throughout Alaska and Canada. Winters from the southern U.S. to South America. Listen for high-pitched, rolling “greeep!” calls.  All About Birds gives this additional information about this bird:  Least Sandpipers are the smallest of the small sandpipers known as “peeps”—not much bigger than a sparrow. They have distinctive yellow-green legs and a high-pitched creep call. Look for them on edges of mudflats or marshes, where they walk with a hunched posture and probe for little crustaceans, insects, and other invertebrates. This common but declining shorebird migrates thousands of miles between its arctic breeding grounds and wintering grounds as far south as Chile and Brazil. 

The first time I saw this bird was on the morning of March 12, 2021, along the San Antonio River in Concepcion Park.  I was staked out there hoping to see a continuing Blue Bunting (which I didn’t!) when I saw a group of four Least Sandpipers on the top of a small dam structure near the Theo Street Bridge in the park.  These birds were very small, and, had I not been using binoculars, I would not have seen them!  Here are a couple of photos I took that morning.