by Frank Keim
The Least sandpiper has the same Yup’ik name as its lookalike-cousins, the Western and Semi-palmated sandpipers: Iisuraar(aq) (Scammon Bay, Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers), and Iiyuraar(aq) (Hooper Bay-Chevak). Both of these names loosely mean, “the dear little bird that makes the sound iisur or iiyur.” There is a slight difference between each of the bird specie’s spring calls and songs, but they are similar enough to be given the same Yup’ik name.
This shorebird is the smallest member of the sandpiper family in the world, and is no bigger than a sparrow. It’s also the sandpiper you’ll likely see more often foraging farther inland from the sea on narrow tidal creeks, sandy riverbanks, and the muddy edges of salt marshes, ponds and lake shores. It feeds by walking slowly and picking up small items from the sand or mud and often probes for its food in the mud just as its cousins do. Its diet includes tiny crustaceans, insects and their larvae, small snails, marine worms and seeds. Researchers recently discovered a new feeding strategy they use. While probing damp mud with their bills, they use the surface tension of the water to transport prey quickly from their bill tips to their mouths. While foraging, little flocks of Least sandpipers will fly up and circle the immediate area, then land again, giving thin peeping cries, earning them the nickname, “peep.”
In June, when they arrive on their preferred northern breeding ground in sedge meadows, damp bogs, tundra heaths, and the edge of boreal forests, they get right down to the mating game. After the male decides where he wants to nest, he circles with alternating flutters and glides while singing his twittering iisur, iisur, song. If there is an admiring female down below, he lands and approaches her, leaning forward with tail high, and often raising one or both wings over his back. If the female likes what she sees, she signals her interest, and he begins to scrape out a small depression on the ground, usually in a clump of grass or sedges or on a moss hummock near water. The female completes the nest to her liking with a lining of small bits of grass, leaves, moss and other soft vegetative materials.
At the beginning of their courting period, males fiercely defend their display areas against other males by aggressively chasing each other, sparring with their feet, and even landing on each other’s backs to fight. Once paired up for breeding, though, they begin to relax and become less aggressive toward other males.
She lays four pale-buff eggs splotched with brown, usually in the shape of a cross, in the nest. At first, both she and her mate help in the incubation of the eggs, with the female incubating at night and early morning, and the male during most of the day. Later, the male may do most or all of the brooding. After 19-23 days, the young hatch at about the same time, and when their downy feathers dry they all immediately leave the nest. They are usually tended by both parents at first, but the female deserts them soon afterward. The male takes over from there and usually stays near the young until they can fly, about 14-16 days after hatching. The young know how to feed themselves after they leave the nest, but are attentive to how and what their father eats.
During their migration south, which begins in August, they migrate in small flocks, dozens rather than hundreds or thousands, as do some other sandpipers, but along the way they regularly join with their cousin shorebirds, including Western sandpipers, Dunlins and Semi-palmated sandpipers. From Alaska, they move southeast, then south, through the interior of North America, with frequent stopovers at key feeding areas. Although large numbers winter in the southern United States, many of them winter in northern South America.
Their scientific name, Calidris minutilla, is from the ancient Greek, kalidris, a term used 2300 years ago by Greek philosopher Aristotle to describe small gray-colored wading birds, and minutilla, from Latin meaning, “very small.” The common name, least sandpiper, means “the smallest wading bird that runs across the sand uttering a piping note.”
Numbers of these birds have declined over the last decade, but in comparison to so many other species they have remained fairly stable. In the early 20th century they were among the many small sandpipers shot by commercial hunters on the Atlantic coast, but thanks to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 their population has recovered significantly. Still, one of the major conservation concerns we have for them today is wetland degradation and destruction, especially along their migration routes and on their wintering grounds. So, it is essential that we take action to protect these important habitats.
