Least Sandpiper

Least Sandpiper

Scientific Classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Charadriiformes
Family:	Scolopacidae
Genus:	Calidris
Species:	minutilla

Binomial name

Calidris minutilla

The Least Sandpiper, Calidris minutilla, is the smallest shorebird.

This species has yellowish legs and a short thin dark bill. Breeding adults are brown with dark brown streaks on top and white underneath. They have a light line above the eye and a dark crown. In winter, Least Sandpipers are grey above. The juveniles are brightly patterned above with rufous colouration and white mantle stripes.

This bird can be difficult to distinguish from other similar tiny shorebirds; these are known collectively as "peeps" or "stints". In particular, Least Sandpiper is very similar to its Asian counterpart, Long-toed Stint . It differs from that species in its more compact, shorter-necked appearance, shorter toes, somewhat duller colours, and stronger wingbar.

Their breeding habitat is the northern North American continent on tundra or in bogs. They nest on the ground near water.

They migrate in flocks to the southern United States and northern South America. They occur as very rare vagrants in western Europe.

These birds forage on mudflats, picking up food by sight, sometimes by probing. They mainly eat small crustaceans, insects and snails.

Image Slideshow: Least Sandpiper

Anagrams: Least Sandpiper

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-a-d-e-e-i-l-n-p-p-r-s-s-t"
	-2 letters: pleasantries.
	-3 letters: appertained, desalinates, interlapped, interpleads, peasantries, pedestrians.
	-4 letters: appertains, appetisers, appraisees, dapperness, depressant, desalinate, disappears, dispersant, esplanades, interplead, paltriness, paperiness, parentless, pedantries, pedestrian, penetralia, peptidases, periplasts, pistareens, plaistered, pleasanter, presidents, psalteries, reassailed, sandpapers, sandpipers, sparteines, splintered, standpipes, tailenders.
	-5 letters: adeptness, airplanes, airspeeds, alertness, alienated, alienates, andesites, antipress, antisleep, apartness, aperients, apetalies, appareled, appealers, appeasers, appertain, appetiser, appraised, appraisee, appraises, appressed, arsenates, arsenides, arsenites, asperated, asperates, aspirants, aspirated, aspirates, dapperest, datelines, depilates, desalters, detailers, detainers, dipterans, disappear, disparate, dispenser, dispersal, displants, displease, dissenter, earliness, elaterids, elaterins, endpapers, endplates, enlisters, entailers, entrapped, epistlers, eradiates, espaliers, esplanade, essential, interlaps, interpled, irateness, islanders, lapidates, listeners, nasalised, nearliest, nearsides, palatines, palestrae, palestras, palisades, panelists, panetelas, pantdress, paperless, paradises, parapeted, parasites, parietals, partisans, passerine, pearliest, pearlites, pedaliers, pederasts, pedestals, pedlaries, penalised, penalises, penalties, peptidase, perinatal, periplast, persisted, pertained, pieplants, pilasters, pilseners, pinasters, pistareen, plaisters, plastered, preadapts, prepasted, prepastes, president, printless, pristanes, psalteria, psaltries, rapidness, readiness, reapplied, reapplies, reenlists, repainted, replanted, residents, resinated, resinates, sandpaper, sandpeeps, sandpiles, sandpiper, satrapies, seaplanes, seastrand, seatrains, separated, separates, serenatas, slippered, snappiest, snarliest, spalpeens, spandrels, spandrils, sparteine, spindlers, splinters, standpipe, stapedial, stapelias, steadiers, stearines, stipplers, taeniases, tailender, tapelines, tapenades, tardiness, tepidness, tiredness, traplines, treadless, treenails, triplanes.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.