Buff-breasted Sandpiper Calidris subruficollis 飾胸鷸
Category I. Accidental.
IDENTIFICATION
Dec. 2016, Martin Hale.
18-20 cm. Approximately same body size as Dunlin, but longer in the leg. Resembles a small female Ruff but brighter with a shorter and finer all-dark bill. Prominent dark eye highlighted by pale feathering around the eye, darkly streaked crown contrasting with plain face. Underparts largely buff with blackish spots at sides of breast. Legs fairly deep yellow. Prefers open mud or grassy habitats.
VOCALISATIONS
Appears to be largely silent away from the breeding grounds.
OCCURRENCE
2015: one at Mai Po NR on 19 April (Lo 2017).
2016: one on a drained fish pond at San Tin from 20 December 2016 to 2 January 2017.
RANGE & SYSTEMATICS
Monotypic. Breeds in small numbers from western Chukotka, Russia east along the coast and on Wrangel Island to at least 170oE (McCarty et al. 2020); bulk of population breeds along north coast of Alaska and Canada. Winters in South America. In China has occurred in Shandong and Taiwan (Liu and Chen 2020).
CONSERVATION STATUS
IUCN: VULNERABLE. Population decreasing at a moderately rapid pace at minimum.
McCarty, J. P., L. L. Wolfenbarger, C. D. Laredo, P. Pyle, and R. B. Lanctot (2020). Buff-breasted Sandpiper (Calidris subruficollis), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (P. G. Rodewald, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.bubsan.01
Liu, Y. and Y. H. Chen (eds) (2020). The CNG Field Guide to the Birds of China (in Chinese). Hunan Science and Technology Publication House, Changsha.
Lo, C. F. (2017). Buff-breasted Sandpiper Trygnites ruficollis at Mai Po Nature Reserve: the first Hong Kong record. Hong Kong Bird Report 2015: 265-267.
