The Red-backed Sandpiper 
No. 241 
Red-backed Sandpiper 
A. O. U. No. 243 a. Pelidna alpina sakhalina (Vieillot). 
Synonyms.— American Dunlin. Ox-bird. 
Description. — Adult in winter: Above, nearly uniform light brownish gray, 
the feathers slightly darker centrally, or with dusky mesial streaks; primary coverts 
and wing-quills blackish; the greater coverts white-tipped; the inner primaries narrowly 
white-edged; the secondaries increasingly white on the inner web; the tertials almost 
entirely white; upper tail-coverts like back or darker, but the lateral feathers white 
or white-edged; an impure whitish superciliary line; lower eyelid white; sides of head 
and neck and across fore-neck and breast like color of back, but lighter; the color 
distributed centrally from the feathers, giving a faintly streaked appearance; remaining 
underparts white, or with a few gray streaks on sides. Bill longer, stouter, slightly 
decurved near tip, black; feet and legs black. Adult in summer: Upperparts black 
centrally with broad margining of bright rusty ochraceous; wings as before; breast, 
etc., grayish white, sharply streaked with dusky; belly black, strongly contrasting 
with breast; crissum, etc., white. Length 193-222.3 (7.60-8.75); wing 119.4 ( 4 - 7 °); 
tail 58.2 (2.29); bill 38.1 (1.50); tarsus 27.8 (1.09). 
Recognition Marks. —Towhee size (considerably under Killdeer size); bright 
rufous of back and black of belly of breeding plumage distinctive; soft brownish gray 
of upperparts and breast; rather long black bill, slightly curved near tip, distinctive 
for plumage commonly seen. 
Nesting. —Does not breed in California. Nest: A mere “scrape” on the 
ground, lined or not with leaves and grasses. Eggs: 4; pointed ovate, olive-buff to 
deep olive-buff, or water-green, boldly, heavily, and often broadly marked (sometimes 
in spiral or “twisted” fashion) with reddish brown (Prout’s brown, deep mummy- 
brown or bister), with snuff-brown under-shell markings. Av. size 34.5 x 24.6 (1.36 x 
.97); index 71. Season: June; one brood. 
Range of Pelidna alpina. —Breeds in the northern portions of the Northern 
Hemisphere; winters south to the Indian Ocean, Red Sea, Mediterranean, Gulf of 
Mexico, and Lower California. 
Range of P. a. sakhalina. —North America and eastern Asia. Breeds on the 
northern coast of Siberia west to the Yenisei; in Alaska from the mouth of the Yukon 
and in northern British America. Winters sparingly on the Pacific Coast of the United 
States, more commonly in Lower California, and on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts from 
New Jersey to Texas, and in Asia from Japan south to the Malay Archipelago. Also 
occurs sparingly in the interior of the United States. 
Distribution in California. —Fairly common migrant along the coast and 
casually inland. Winters sparingly from San Francisco southward, and has been 
found both in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys. 
Authorities.—Cassin ( Tringa alpina, var. americana ), in Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. 
Surv., vol. ix., 1858, p. 719 (Petaluma); Nelson, Rep. Nat. Hist. Coll. Alaska, 1887, 
p. no (breeding habits, nest, eggs, etc.). 
SAVE during the spring migrations, when the black of the belly is 
a conspicuous sign, it is not easy to distinguish this bird from the more 
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