Non-breeding adult. Photo: Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
Arenaria melanocephala
| Conservation status | Some data from the Pacific Northwest suggest declining numbers in recent decades. |
|---|---|
| Family | Sandpipers |
| Habitat | Strictly coastal. Rocky shores, breakwaters, islets; nests on coastal tundra. In migration and winter, typically found in rocky sites along coast, such as rocky shoreline, jetties, breakwaters; also on mudflats and sand beaches at times. Breeds in Alaska on wet tundra near estuaries or lagoons, very close to coast. |
On coast, forages mostly by walking slowly on rocks. Feeding on acorn barnacle, may insert bill in shell opening and pry it open, or hammer on shell to break it. Limpets and other mollusks are pried from rocks with pointed bill. On beaches, may turn over rocks, shells, or seaweed to look for food underneath.
4, sometimes 3. Yellowish-green to olive, blotched with dark brown. Incubation is by both sexes, usually 22-24 days. Young: Downy young leave nest soon after hatching. Both parents tend young at first, but female usually leaves after about 2 weeks, leaving male to care for them; young find all their own food. Young can make short flights after about 23 days, can fly well at about 28-30 days.
Downy young leave nest soon after hatching. Both parents tend young at first, but female usually leaves after about 2 weeks, leaving male to care for them; young find all their own food. Young can make short flights after about 23 days, can fly well at about 28-30 days.
Includes barnacles, mollusks, insects. On breeding grounds, may feed heavily on insects, also some seeds and berries. On coast (where it spends most of year), barnacles and limpets are among main foods. Also eats other crustaceans and mollusks, marine worms.
Adults often come back to exact same sites and nest with same mate each year. Male displays with circular flight over territory. Nest site is on ground, usually close to water among grasses or sedges, either in open or hidden by tall vegetation. Nest (probably built by both parents) is shallow depression, lined with grasses.
Audubon’s scientists have used 140 million bird observations and sophisticated climate models to project how climate change will affect this bird’s range in the future.
Zoom in to see how this species’s current range will shift, expand, and contract under increased global temperatures.
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Compared with other shorebirds, the bird's range is extremely limited. But there might be a good reason for that.
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