SPOTTED SANDPIPER 431 



Spotted Sandpiper 



Actitis macularia (Linnaeus) 



Other names — Tip-up; Teeter; Teeter-tail; Tringoides macularius; Totanus 

 macalarius. 



Description — Adults, both sexes, in late spring and summer: Whole upper 

 surface, including rump, tail, and outer surface of closed wing, olive brown, 

 with faint greenish iridescence; head indistinctly streaked, and whole back 

 barred and streaked with sooty brown; stripe from upper mandible through 

 eye, and whole lower side of head, white, flecked with blackish brown, most 

 sparingly on chin; eyelids white; bill dull yellow, dusky at tip; iris "hazel" 

 (Audubon, 1842, V, p. 308); outer tail feathers barred with light brown and 

 white; flight feathers dull dark brown, the primaries with white patches on 

 inner webs near base and the secondaries tipped narrowly with white; edge 

 of wing mottled with olive brown and white; forward lining of wing, and 

 axillars, pure white; hindmost under wing coverts and flight feathers, dusky; 

 whole under surface of body white, everywhere marked with rounded spots 

 of brownish black; legs greenish gray; feet and "heel" yellow; nails black. 

 Adults and immatures, both sexes, in late fall, winter and early spring: Upper 

 surface of same general color as in summer, but without markings save for 

 blackish shaft lines; under surface dull white, sides of neck and chest suffused 

 with drab and with darker shaft lines; flanks and lower tail coverts sometimes 

 faintly spotted. Males: Total length 6.74-7.75 inches (171-197 mm.) (ten 

 specimens); folded wing 3.66-3.96 (93.0-100.3); bill along culmen 0.79-1.01 

 (20.2-25.6); tarsus 0.86-0.98 (21.8-24.9) (ten specimens). Females: Total 

 length 7.12-8.40 (181-213) (six specimens); folded wing 4.00-4.20 (101.5- 

 106.7); bill along culmen 0.89-0.98 (22.5-24.8); tarsus 0.93-0.98 (23.7-25.0) 

 (ten specimens); all from California. Juvenile plumage: Whole upper surface 

 olive brown with faint greenish iridescence, the feathers tipped narrowly with 

 buff followed by black, giving a scaled appearance, and with dark brown shaft 

 lines; eyelids and stripe from upper mandible to eye, white; outer surface of 

 closed wing narrowly but sharply barred with blackish brown and light buffy; 

 rest of wing, and tail, as in adult; sides of neck and chest, washed with drab, 

 and faintly barred with dusky; rest of under surface, white. By wear this 

 plumage becomes nearly indistinguishable from that of adults during mid- 

 winter. Natal plumage: Stripe from top of upper mandible over top of head 

 and down along middle of back to tail, black; top of head at side of black 

 stripe, mixed buffy white and black, in fine pattern; narrow but distinct stripe 

 from side of bill through eye to ear region, black; lower side of head and 

 chin, silky white; rest of upper surface including tail and wing, mixed buffy 

 white and black; whole under surface white; bill greenish yellow. 



Marks for field identification — Small size (but larger than Least or 

 Western Sandpiper), uniform brown upper surface, white streak on wing, and 

 (in spring and summer) sharp rounded blackish spots on white under surface; 

 flies with narrow down-curved wings, rarely raising them above level of back; 

 when on ground teeters almost incessantly. From the Solitary Sandpiper, often 

 found in similar situations, it differs in slightly smaller size, yellowish rather 

 than greenish legs, white bar on wing (shown in flight), white sides and axillars, 

 and (in adults in spring and summer) in the sharp spotting of whole under 

 surface. 



