Broad-billed Sandpiper

Broad-billed sandpipers are small waders, 16–18 cm long, slightly smaller than the dunlin, but larger than the little stint; it has a longer, straighter bill with the tip distinctly kinked down, and shorter legs than dunlin. The breeding adult has dark brown upperparts patterned with narrow, pale feather fringes, and white underparts with blackish markings on the breast. It has a pale crown stripe, and a distinctive double (split) supercilium. As its English name suggests, the bill is slightly broader than in most other Calidris species, but this "museum" name characteristic is rarely evident in the field. The two subspecies differ in the summer plumage feather fringing, narrow and white in C. f. falcinellus, brighter and rufous-toned in C. f. sibirica. The winter plumage is much paler and greyer above and white below, like a winter dunlin, but retains the distinct head pattern. Juveniles have backs similar to a young dunlin or little stint with pale "tramlines" down the mantle, but the white flanks and belly and brown-streaked breast are distinctive. The contact call is a dry, whistling dree-it, dree-it and a clicking dik dik, similar to the little stint.

The broad-billed sandpiper is strongly migratory, spending the non-breeding season from easternmost Africa, through south and south-east Asia to Australasia. It is gregarious, and forms flocks with other scolopacid waders, particularly dunlins. Despite its European breeding range, this species is rare on passage in western Europe, due to its south-easterly migration route. This bird's breeding habitat is wet taiga bogs in Arctic northern Scandinavia and Siberia, in two disjunct regions, representing the two subspecies. The male performs an aerial display during courtship. The pairs nest in a ground scrape, laying four eggs. They forage in soft mud on marshes in the summer and on coasts in winter, mainly picking up food by sight. They mostly eat insects and other small invertebrates.