Calidris minuta - Little Stint
Feather characters. Barbules are rather short (0.78-0.84 mm) and divided into pigmented nodes and unpigmented or partly pigmented (less than 50%) internodes. Concentration of pigment may vary in different body feathers. Vase-shaped nodes are equally distributed along the entire length of barbules (32-36 per mm). They are all about the same size, slightly decreasing towards distal end. Villi are absent and internodes are occasionally kinked. Minute prongs are present on distal end of barbules and on both sides of the pennulum. However, distribution of prongs may vary in different body feathers.
Field characters. Size 14 cm. Weight 23 g (Dunning, 1993). Smallest of European waders; resembles Temminck's Stint (Calidris temminckii, not included in BRIS) and Sanderling (which is larger, lacks hind toe and much paler in winter plumage). In summer, upperparts and crown are rufous, mottled black; supercilium and underparts white with streaked sides of breast; legs black. Adults in winter with mouse-grey upperparts and whiter underparts. Juveniles resemble pale summer adult with two pale-coloured "V"s on back. Flight swift, with instant take-off and rapid wing-beats; does not "tower" when flushed.
Voice. Common note is a monosyllabic "chit", repeated three times.
Distribution. Breeds irregularly on tundra of N Norway and N Russia. Passage migrant in most of Europe, mainly in autumn; occasionally winters north to Great Britain. Map: see MapIt.
Habitat. Breeds in tundra marshes and on coastal tundra; on migration on saline mudflats and on muddy shores of inland waters.
Food. Picks food items up from surface. Feeds mainly on arthropods and their larvae, but also takes worms, small molluscs, and some plant material.