Calidris minuta
Silhouette: Edwin Price · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10%
The little stint (Calidris 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 and to Australia. The genus name is from Ancient Greek kalidris or skalidris, a term used by Aristotle for some grey-coloured waterside birds. The specific minuta is Latin for "small.
Its small size, fine dark bill, dark legs and quicker movements distinguish this species from all waders except the other dark-legged stints. It can be distinguished from these in all plumages by its combination of a fine bill tip, unwebbed toes and long primary projection. The call is a sharp "stit".
The breeding adult has an orange wash to the breast, a white throat and a strong white V on its back. In winter plumage identification is difficult. Juveniles have pale crown stripes and a pinkish breast. An apparent hybrid between this species and Temminck's stint has been reported from the Netherlands.
The numbers of this species (and of curlew sandpiper) depend on the population of lemmings. In poor lemming years, predatory species such as skuas and... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Karachi | 🇵🇰 Pakistan | |
| 2 | Manama | 🇧🇭 Bahrain | |
| 3 | Kuwait City | 🇰🇼 Kuwait | |
| 4 | Zanzibar City | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 5 | Vasai-Virar | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Dar es-Salaam | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 7 | Dammam | 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia | |
| 8 | Agra | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Tunis | 🇹🇳 Tunisia | |
| 10 | Mombasa | 🇰🇪 Kenya |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Little Stint sighting in Cape Town on a given day, based on 57 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 131st most-seen of the 196 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January and February
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Little Stint in Cape Town on a given day, against under 5% in March to December, the lowest months. Those are among Cape Town's driest months, with about 20 mm of rain a month against 140 mm in June.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Little Stint sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
36th of 65
Of the 65 cities where we can rate Little Stint sightings, Cape Town ranks 36th at under 5%. The best odds are in Karachi (Pakistan, about 40%), Manama (Bahrain, about 30%) and Kuwait City (Kuwait, about 30%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Little Stint is recorded against all the birds logged in Cape Town (57 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
