Africa Wild

906. Greater Yellowlegs Tringa melanoleuca (Grootgeelpootruiter)
Order: Charadriiformes. Family: Scolopacidae



Description
29-33 cm. The Greater Yellowlegs' cryptic plumage is mottled brownish-gray and white, lightly streaked or barred breast and belly, with the breeding plumage brighter and more heavily barred. Long, slim, slightly upturned bill; long yellow legs.
Occurs in non-breeding plumage.
Similar species: Slightly smaller than Common Greenshank but less upcurve on bill, it has orange-yellow (not yellow or greenish yellow) legs and a square white rump that does not extend up the back. Larger than the Lesser Yellowlegs with longer, Greenshank-like bill and orange-yellow (not lemon-yellow) legs.

Distribution
Breeds from southern Alaska to Canada, heading south in the non-breeding season to the USA and South America, while it is a vagrant to Europe, Japan and South Africa. Here it has only been recorded once at Noordhoek, Western Cape in December 1971; it generally prefers coastal and inland wetlands.

Habitat
Freshwater marshes and estuaries.

Diet
It does most of its foraging in shallow to fairly deep water, plucking up prey and sometimes chasing fish with its head and neck extended.

Breeding
Their breeding habitat is bogs and marshes in the boreal forest region of Canada and Alaska. They nest on the ground, usually in well-hidden locations near water. The clutch size is three to four eggs. The incubation period is 23 days. The young leave the nest within 24 hours of hatching and then leave the vicinity of the nest within two days.

Call
Listen to Bird Call.

Status
Very rare vagrant to the sub-region.

906. Greater Yellowlegs Tringa melanoleuca (Grootgeelpootruiter)



Links:
Audubon Birds

265. Green Sandpiper Tringa ochropus (Witgatruiter)
Order: Charadriiformes. Family: Scolopacidae


Description
21-24 cm. A plump wader with a dark greenish-brown back and wings, greyish head and streaked breast and otherwise brilliant white underparts. Barred tail. The back is spotted white to varying extents, being maximal in the breeding adult, and less in non-breeding and young birds. The legs and bill are both dark green or horn with paler base.
Non-breeding: White eyebrow only from bill to eye. Dark olive-brown above with faint white spots, white rump contrasts with dark back, white tail with black bars. Greenbrown legs. Dark underwing, white belly.
Similar species: Resembles Wood Sandpiper and Common Sandpiper but is larger, has darker upperparts that contrast with its square white rump, and blackish underwings. It has less extensive and broader barring on the upper tail than does Wood Sandpiper. Differs from the Wood Sandpiper in darker (more greenish brown than in Wood Sandpiper), less obviously spotted upperparts with buff (not white) and longer bill; in flight has larger white rump, barred tail and dark underwing.

Green Sandpiper vs Wood Sandpiper
Wood Sandpiper is distinctly longer-legged and the legs are yellowish rather than grey-green. In flight, the toes project well beyond the tail tip whereas in Green Sandpiper only the toe tips project. Wood Sandpiper is more heavily spotted and warmly coloured above and the pale eyestripe usually extends obviously behind the eye; in Green Sandpiper it extends only from the bill to the eye.
In flight, separation of the two is easy: the uppertail of Green Sandpiper is white with two complete and one incomplete transverse black bars. The tail of Wood Sandpiper is more finely barred with brown. The underwing colour usually is distinctive: Wood Sandpiper has pale, greyish underwings while those of Green Sandpiper are almost black. However, beware of the slightly paler underwings of juvenile Green Sandpipers and of the occasional Wood Sandpiper which has fairly dark (but not blackish) underwings.

Distribution
Breeds in a broad belt of forest and taiga from 50-65° North, heading south in the non-breeding season to the Mediterranean, southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal to Ethiopia south to southern Africa. Here it is generally scarce, occurring in patches of Zimbabwe, Limpopo Province, northern and southern Botswana and central Mozambique. In its African non-breeding quarters it occurs mostly in a belt between 20°N and 15°S, but small numbers regularly penetrate further south.



Habitat
Small streams, pools in vleis and woodland, ditches and moist margins of large water bodies.

Movements and migrations
Non-breeding migrant to southern Africa, arriving in early September and August and leaving in the period from April-May.

Diet
It mainly eats insects, crustaceans, spiders, molluscs, annelids, fish and plant material, doing most of its foraging under overhanging vegetation, plucking prey from the ground or shallow water or trembling its foot in water to disturb resting animals.

Breeding
Extralimital. Egg laying from April to May. Pair bond is monogamous. Usually uses old tree nests of other bird species, normally with little modification, sometimes on natural platform. 4 eggs are laid incubated for 20-23 days, by both sexes.

Call
A three-noted whistle tew-a-tew. Listen to Bird Call.

Status
Uncommon to rare summer visitor. September to April (rarely as early as August).

265. Green Sandpiper Tringa ochropus (Witgatruiter)

© nan

© nan
Switzerland

Links:
Sabap2: http://sabap2.adu.org.za/species_info.p ... #menu_left
Clive Barlow,Tim Wacher. A Field Guide to the Birds of the Gambia and Senegal
Hockey, P.A.R. 1998. Africa’s waders: a guide to their identification. Part 1. Africa - Birds & Birding 3(1):53-61.

266. Wood Sandpiper Tringa glareola (Bosruiter)
Order: Charadriiformes. Family: Scolopacidae


Description
The Wood Sandpiper has a height of 19-21 cm and weighs around 65 g. The most obvious features are a white supercilium, which contributes to a distinctly capped effect, and very heavily spotted or even chequered upperparts. It has brown upperparts and generally white underparts. Profuse white spotting on lightish upperparts distinctive. The most striking plumage feature are the bold white supercilia, which show well behind the eye and have a dark brown 'cap'. The black bill is about the same length as the head and straight. The head is black, shape is almost squarish in profile, and the neck can be extended or retracted a certain amount, changing the overall appearance. The eyes are brown. The rump has a square white patch between the dark tip of the tail and the back. The legs are longer than Green Sandpiper's legs and usually pale yellowish, but can appear quite dark when the bird is feeding in mud, or in dull light. Sexes alike.
The juvenile resembles the adult, but is warmer brown above, spotted buff.
Intermediate in size between Common Sandpiper and Green Sandpiper, which it superficially resembles. Distinguished from Green Sandpiper by the paler upperparts with pale flecking, the grey (not black) underwings and the yellower legs, and by its less streaked breast. Lacks the white shoulder patch, dark rump and tail and the wing bar of Common Sandpiper, and has a different flight action. Darker and browner than Common Greenshank or Marsh Sandpiper, and has a square white rump. Distinguished from Lesser Yellowlegs by its smaller size, longer white eye-stripe, less streaked breast, and by the wings not projecting beyond the tail at rest.

Distribution
The Wood Sandpiper is a widespread migratory wading bird of Europe and Asia which overwinters in Africa. It breeds in a broad band of forest tundra from Iceland and Scotland across Eurasia to the Kamchatka, Siberia, heading south in the non-breeding season to Australia, South-East Asia, India and sub-Saharan Africa, including southern Africa. Here it is common in Zimbabwe, northern and eastern Botswana and north-eastern South Africa, while more scarce elsewhere in the region.

Habitat
It occurs in a wide range of open freshwater habitats, such as shallow sewage ponds, dams, pans, flood plains, marshes and muddy edges of water courses, while largely absent from tidal coastal habitats.

Diet
The diet of the wood sandpiper varies seasonally, and includes a variety of aquatic and terrestrial insects, other invertebrates, small fish, frogs and plant matter, doing most of its foraging by slowly walking on the ground or in shallow water, probing, pecking and sweeping its bill from side to side in search of prey.

Breeding
Nesting on the on the ground, the wood sandpiper usually lays three or four eggs.

Movements and migrations
Non-breeding migrant, with southern African birds originating from Finland east to the Ural Mountains, departing the breeding grounds in June and eventually arriving in southern Africa in July. It is widespread in the region by August, with adults leaving in late February and March, while immature birds leave in the period from late March to early May.

Call
A very vocal species, with a high-pitched, slightly descending take-off call chiff-iff-iff.
Listen to Bird Call: http://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Tringa-glareola

Status
Summer visitor. Common non-breading Palearctic migrant, most abundant in eastern Southernn Africa. Main arrivals from August, departure late February-May, some 1-year birds overwintering. Highly nomadic on wintering grounds. Generally solitary or in loose groups.
The Wood Sandpiper is classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List.

266. Wood Sandpiper Tringa glareola

© Toko
Eswatini, Hlane

© SammyA
Kruger National Park, Sunset dam

© ExFmem
Kruger National Park, Sunset dam

© Pumbaa & Timon

© leachy

© Super Mongoose


Macaneta Wetlands, about 30 kms north of Maputo © Dindingwe

Links:
http://sabap2.adu.org.za/docs/sabap1/266.pdf
http://sabap2.adu.org.za/spp_summary.ph ... &section=3
Hockey, P.A.R. 1998. Africa’s waders: a guide to their identification. Part 1. Africa - Birds & Birding 3(1):53-61.

64. Common Sandpiper Actitis hypoleucos (Gewone Ruiter)
Order: Charadriiformes. Family: Scolopacidae


Description
20 cm. It has greyish-brown upperparts, white underparts, extending around the folded wing. An obvious white shoulder in front of the closed wing. White upper tail barred brown. A white eye-ring is visible up close. Short dark-yellowish dull green legs and feet, and a robust bill with a pale base and dark tip. Bill straight and about equal to head length; habit of bobbing its rear half distinctive.
Outside of the breeding season, they are duller and have more conspicuous barring on the wings, though this is still only visible at close range. Sexes alike.
Juveniles are more heavily barred above and have buff edges to the wing feathers.
Similar species: Wood and Green Sandpipers larger, longer-legged and shorter-tailed (wings reaching tail tips); both lack white shoulder notch. Confusion most likely with Green Sandpiper, which lacks distinctive white shoul­der crescent. Common Sandpiper shorter legged and longer tailed with wing tips falling well short of end of tail.
Wood Sandpiper is larger and longer-legged, and has pale spotting on the upperparts and a white rump.

Distribution
Breeds in a broad area between 30-56° North and from western Europe to Japan, heading south in the non-breeding season to Australia and much of sub-Saharan Africa, from southern Mauritania to Eritrea south to southern Africa. Here it is common in northern and eastern Botswana, Zimbabwe, central and southern Mozambique and the eastern half and the western coast of South Africa, while more scarce in Namibia and central South Africa.

Habitat
It can occupy any type of aquatic habitat, generally preferring rivers, streams, dam shores, estuaries, tidal creeks in salt marshes, mangroves and filtration tanks of sewage works, which it especially favours.

Movements and migrations
Non-breeding migrant to southern Africa, with adults leaving Europe in late June or early July after which the juveniles follow them in the period from July-September. The first adults arrive in southern Africa in the second week of July and are widespread in the region by August, while the first juveniles arrive in late August and are common by September-October. Both adults and juveniles usually leave in the period from late January to April, rarely staying until May.

Diet
It mainly eats invertebrates, especially aquatic and terrestrial insects, doing most of its foraging by walking slowly with its head held almost horizontally, plucking prey from the ground or low vegetation. It also gleans insects from the backs of Nile crocodiles and Hippopotamuses.

Breeding
A monogamous species, the Common Sandpiper breeds between May and June, nesting in scattered single pairs. It nests on the ground near freshwater. The nest is a shallow depression in the ground, sometimes situated amongst shrubs and trees, into which three to five (usually four) eggs are laid. The clutch is incubated by both the male and female, hatching after 21 to 22 days. The chicks are greyish-brown, with faint dark speckling on the back, and are tended by both adults, although one adult, often the female, usually leaves before the young fledge at 22 to 28 days.

Call
The calls include a shrill, three-note twee-see-see, given when the bird takes off, while the song is a high, rapid titti-weeti, titti-weeti. Listen to Bird Call.

Status
Summer visitor. Common non-breading Palearctic migrant, main arrivals Sept/Oct, most departing by Mar; usually solitary. Classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List.

64. Common Sandpiper Actitis hypoleucos

© Flutterby


Macaneta Wetlands, about 30 kms north of Maputo © Dindingwe

© Pumbaa

© BluTuna

© Pumbaa
Kruger National Park, Feb 2020

Links:
Species text Sabap1
Sabap2
ARKive: http://www.arkive.org/common-sandpiper/ ... ypoleucos/
Hockey, P.A.R. 1998. Africa’s waders: a guide to their identification. Part 1. Africa - Birds & Birding 3(1):53-61.

262. Ruddy Turnstone Arenaria interpres (Rooisteenloper)
Order: Charadriiformes. Family: Scolopacidae


Description
22 cm. Sexes alike. This distinctive, stocky wader has a short, black bill and short orange legs. White underparts. Dark brown back and head.
In non-breeding plumage the upperparts are blackish and there are irregular dark markings on the front and sides of the breast.
It has a black bib and reddish brown upperparts during breeding.
Juvenile has browner upperparts which are more conspicuously scaled than in non-breeding adults.

Distribution
Breeds in the circumpolar above 65° North in Canada, Greenland, Europe and Asia, dispersing across the world's coasts in the non-breeding season to North and South America, western Europe, southern and South-East Asia, Australasia, Pacific Ocean islands, Madagascar and Africa, including southern Africa. Here it is common along the coastline of the region, especially at Langebaan Lagoon in summer, while occasionally recorded far inland in northern Zimbabwe and Botswana, Namibia and South Africa.



Habitat
Rocky and sandy shores, estuaries and coastal lagoons.

Movements and migrations
Intercontinental migrant, breeding from late May to early August before heading south to the tropics, arriving in the period from August to September but eventually getting to southern Africa in September and October. Most birds depart in April, occasionally in May, finally arriving back at their breeding grounds in June.

Diet
It mainly eats invertebrates, doing most of its foraging in the day at low and high tide, turning over stones and algal mats with its strong bill to access the food beneath or even gathering together in groups to turn over particularly large objects, such as dead fish.

Breeding
It is a monogamous bird and pairs may remain together for more than one breeding season. The nest is a shallow scrape, often with a lining of leaves. It is about 11 cm across and 3 cm deep. It may be built amongst vegetation or on bare stony or rocky ground. Several pairs may nest close together. A single clutch of two to five eggs is laid with four being most common. The eggs are smooth, slightly glossy and oval to pear-shaped. They are variable in colour but are commonly pale green-brown with dark brown markings, densest at the larger end. Incubation begins when the first egg is laid and lasts for about 22–24 days. The female is mainly responsible for incubating the eggs but the male may help towards the end. The young birds are precocial and are able to leave the nest soon after hatching. They are buff above with dark grey markings and are white below. They are able to feed themselves but are protected by the parents, particularly the male. They fledge after 19–21 days.

Call
A hard kttuck, given usually in flight. Listen to Bird Call.

Status
Common summer visitor.

262. Ruddy Turnstone Arenaria interpres

© Flutterby
Juvenile

© Pumbaa
Adult in breeding plumage, Amrum (one of the North Frisian Islands on the German North Sea coast)

© Lisbeth
Algarve, Portugal

Links:
Species text Sabap1
Sabap2
Hockey, P.A.R. 1998. Africa’s waders: a guide to their identification. Part 1. Africa - Birds & Birding 3(1):53-61.
Oiseaux net