Green Sandpiper

Tringa ochropus

Other Names

    Chevalier cul-blanc   Waldwasserläufer   Andarríos Grande   Skogssnäppa   Witgatje   Piro-piro culbianco

World: From Scandinavia and Eastern Europe across Central Asia to Eastern Siberia. There are also isolated populations in Kyrgyzstan and Xinjiang. Overwinters in subsaharan Africa as well as the Mediterannean, Turkey, the Middle East and Asia (including India, Japan, and China) and also the Philippines and Northern Borneo. There are also wintering populations in Western Europe.

Kenya: Winter visitor and passage migrant from September - April. Occurs in smaller numbers than the Wood and Common Sandpipers and is less common in the Turkana region.

A shy and solitary Sandpiper which may occasionally be seen in pairs. Although it is seen on pools, lake edges it is more often seen in riverine environments and may even be found in woodland or forested areas. Its diet is mainly beetles and their larvae but it will take other invertebrates (both aquatic and terrestrial) as well as small amounts of plant material. It feeds mostly by pecking at the surface of the water, ground or plant leaves. It will occasionally trample the water to stir up food but rarely uses its bill to probe.

It is similar to, and can be confused with, the smaller, more slightly built Wood Sandpiper. But the 2 species can be told apart by the supercilliary stripe which is less distinct in the Green Sandpiper and does not extend behind the eye.