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Purple Sandpiper

Calidris maritima ORDER: CHARADRIIFORMES FAMILY: SCOLOPACIDAE

IUCN Conservation Status: Least Concern

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Purple Sandpiper Photo

A stout shorebird, the Purple Sandpiper breeds in the tundra and winters along rocky shores of the Atlantic Coast. Despite its name, it appears mostly slate-gray in winter, with only a faint purplish gloss, and shows no purple at all in breeding plumage.

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Calls

  • Calls
  • Courtesy of Macaulay Library
    © Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Song, usually issued in display flights, is a rolling, repeated, throaty series of varied elements. Also makes trills and chattering calls.

Come watch nesting birds at Nestcams.org
Search the Macaulay Library online archive for more sounds and videos