Spoon-billed Sandpiper (Calidris pygmaea)

An attractive little bird with a distinctive spoon-shaped bill, this sandpiper has winter plumage as pretty as its breeding colours. Non-breeding adults have pale brown-grey upperparts, with a white trim around each feather. The underparts are white and it lacks the colours seen in breeding adults, which have a russet red head, neck and breast streaked with brown, and dark upperparts with pale brown and red edging to the feathers. It calls quiet with a 'preeep' and a 'wheeet' (2).

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