The long-toed stint (''Calidris subminuta'') is a small

wader 245px, A flock of Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflats in order to foraging, ...

. The genus name is from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

''kalidris'' or ''skalidris'', a term used by

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

for some grey-coloured waterside birds. The specific ''subminuta'' is from

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

''sub'', "near to" and ''minuta'', "small" from its similarity to the

little stint The little stint (''Calidris minuta'' or ''Erolia minuta'') is a very small wader. It breeds in arctic Europe and Asia, and is a long-distance migrant, wintering south to Africa and south Asia. It occasionally is a vagrant to North America an ...

, ''Calidris minuta''. It breeds across

northern Asia North Asia or Northern Asia () is the northern region of Asia, which is defined in geographical terms and consists of three federal districts of Russia: Ural, Siberian, and the Far Eastern. North Asia is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to its n ...

and is strongly migratory, wintering in south and south east Asia and

Australasia Australasia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising Australia, New Zealand (overlapping with Polynesia), and sometimes including New Guinea and surrounding islands (overlapping with Melanesia). The term is used in a number of different context ...

. It occurs in western Europe only as a very rare vagrant. This bird has yellowish legs and a short thin dark bill. Breeding adults are a rich brown with darker feather centres above and white underneath. They have a light line above the eye and a brown crown. In winter, long-toed stints are grey above. The juveniles are brightly patterned above with rufous colouration and white mantle stripes. This bird can be difficult to distinguish from other similar tiny waders which are known collectively as "peeps" or "

stint A stint is one of several very small waders in the paraphyletic ''"Calidris"'' assemblage – often separated in ''Erolia'' – which in North America are known as peeps. They are Scolopacidae, scolopacid waders much similar in ecomor ...

s". In particular, the long-toed stint is very similar to its North American counterpart, the

least sandpiper The least sandpiper (''Calidris minutilla'') is the smallest shorebird. The genus name is from Ancient Greek ''kalidris'' or ''skalidris'', a term used by Aristotle for some grey-colored waterside birds. The specific ''minutilla'' is Medieval Lat ...

. It differs from that species in its more slender, longer-necked appearance, longer toes, somewhat brighter colours, and weaker wingbar. These birds forage on mudflats, picking up food by sight, sometimes by probing. They mainly eat small crustaceans, insects and snails. Little is known of the breeding habits of this species, although it nests on the ground, and the male has a display flight.

Description

The long-toed stint is a very small wader measuring just in length with a wingspan of . It weighs about . It has a small head and short, straight sharp-tipped beak. The neck is slender, the belly rounded and the long legs are set well back. The toes are long and slender, especially the middle one. The primary feathers extend as far as the tail. The crown is brown and there is a pale streak just above the eye. The upper parts are brown with the centres of the feathers darker brown. The breast is speckled with pale brown and the underparts are white. The legs and feet are yellow and the beak dark brown, apart from the base of the lower mandible which is yellow or pale brown.Hayman, Peter; Marchant, John; Prater, Tony (1986): ''Shorebirds: an identification guide to the waders of the world''. Houghton Mifflin, Boston. This bird has a distinctive stance and its flight call distinguishes it from other sandpipers. On the ground it can be confused with the

red-necked stint The red-necked stint (''Calidris ruficollis'') is a small migratory wader. The genus name is from Ancient Greek ''kalidris'' or ''skalidris'', a term used by Aristotle for some grey-coloured waterside birds. The specific ''ruficollis'' is from La ...

(''Calidris ruficollis'') but is more finely built and slightly smaller.

Distribution and habitat

The long-toed stint breeds in Siberia during the Northern Hemisphere summer. Little is known of its breeding habits but its breeding range includes the

Chukchi Peninsula The Chukchi Peninsula (also Chukotka Peninsula or Chukotski Peninsula; , ''Chukotskiy poluostrov'', short form , ''Chukotka''), at about 66° N 172° W, is the easternmost peninsula of Asia. Its eastern end is at Cape Dezhnev near the village ...

, the Koryak Plateau, the

Commander Islands The Commander Islands, Komandorski Islands, or Komandorskie Islands (, ''Komandorskiye ostrova'') are a series of islands in the Russian Far East, a part of the Aleutian Islands, located about east of the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Bering Sea. ...

, the

Kuril Islands The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands are a volcanic archipelago administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast in the Russian Far East. The islands stretch approximately northeast from Hokkaido in Japan to Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, separating the ...

, land bordering the

Sea of Okhotsk The Sea of Okhotsk; Historically also known as , or as ; ) is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It is located between Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands on the southeast, Japan's island of Hokkaido on the sou ...

, north

Verkhoyansky District Verkhoyansky District (; , ) is an administrativeConstitution of the Sakha Republic and municipalLaw #172-Z #351-III district (raion, or ''ulus''), one of the thirty-four in the Sakha Republic, Russia. It is located in the northern central part of ...

and around the

Ob River The Ob (; ) is a major river in Russia. It is in western Siberia, and with its tributary the Irtysh forms the world's seventh-longest river system, at . The Ob forms at the confluence of the Biya and Katun which have their origins in the Alta ...

and the

Irtysh River The Irtysh is a river in Russia, China, and Kazakhstan. It is the chief tributary of the Ob and is also the longest tributary in the world. The river's source lies in the Mongolian Altai in Dzungaria (the northern part of Xinjiang, China) cl ...

. After the breeding season it migrates southwards passing through China, Indochina, Malaysia and the Philippines and westwards to Burma, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldive Islands. It is a visitor to New Guinea and Australia and a

vagrant Vagrancy is the condition of wandering homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants usually live in poverty and support themselves by travelling while engaging in begging, scavenging, or petty theft. In Western countries, ...

to Sweden, South Africa, Melanesia, Hawaii, the northwestern USA and the vicinity of the Bering Sea. In its over-wintering range it visits a variety of wetland habitats including shallow freshwater or brackish areas, lakes, swamps, floodplains, marshes, lagoons, muddy shores and sewage ponds.

Behaviour

The long-toed stint forages in wet habitats, probing the ground with its beak. It feeds on molluscs, crustaceans, amphibians, insects, other invertebrates and seeds. It roosts in hollows in soft mud or in low vegetation bordering its feeding area. In its breeding range in Russia its habitat is tundra, taiga, open grassy bogs or swamps. The nesting site tends to be in an area with mosses, sedges and dwarf willows and is typically a well-hidden, shallow depression on a mound of sedge or dried grass.

Status

The long-toed stint has a very wide range and it is estimated that there are somewhere between 10,000 and 100,000 individuals globally. There may be in the region of 25,000 breeding pairs. The population trend is unknown but the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

has listed the bird as being of least concern. No particular threats have been identified.

References

External links

Oiseaux
Photos {{Taxonbar, from=Q845969

long-toed stint The long-toed stint (''Calidris subminuta'') is a small wader. The genus name is from Ancient Greek ''kalidris'' or ''skalidris'', a term used by Aristotle for some grey-coloured waterside birds. The specific ''subminuta'' is from Latin ''sub'', ...

Wading birds Birds of North Asia Wintering birds of Indomalaya Wintering birds of Oceania