Calidris alpina
Silhouette: Edwin Price · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
The dunlin (Calidris alpina) is a small wader in the genus Calidris. The English name is a dialect form of "dunling", first recorded in 1531–1532. It derives from dun, "dull brown", with the suffix -ling, meaning a person or thing with the given quality.
It is a circumpolar breeder in Arctic or subarctic regions. Birds that breed in western Europe are short-distance migrants largely staying on western and southern European and northwest African coasts; those breeding in far northern Europe and Asia are long-distance migrants, wintering south to Africa, southeast and west Asia. Birds that breed in Alaska and the Canadian Arctic migrate short distances to the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of North America, although those nesting in northern Alaska overwinter in Asia.
The dunlin was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Tringa alpina. Linnaeus specified the location as Lapland. This species was formerly placed (with the other "stints") by some American authors in the genus Erolia, but is now placed with 23 other sandpipers in the genus Calidris that was introduced in 1804 by the... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 2 | Kuwait City | 🇰🇼 Kuwait | |
| 3 | Manama | 🇧🇭 Bahrain | |
| 4 | Quanzhou | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 5 | Dublin | 🇮🇪 Ireland | |
| 6 | Dammam | 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia | |
| 7 | Porto | 🇵🇹 Portugal | |
| 8 | Helsinki | 🇫🇮 Finland | |
| 9 | San Francisco | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Karachi | 🇵🇰 Pakistan |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | National Zoological Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Zoo Pilsen | 🇨🇿 Czechia | |
| 3 | Monterey Bay Aquarium | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Ralph Perkins II Wildlife Center and Woods Garden | 🇺🇸 United States |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Dunlin sighting in San Diego on a given day, based on 1,695 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 131st most-seen of the 386 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October to February
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Dunlin in San Diego on a given day, against under 5% in March to September, the lowest months. Those are among San Diego's wettest months, with about 35 mm of rain a month against almost none in July.
Between 1 and 4 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Dunlin sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
16th of 63
Of the 63 cities where we can rate Dunlin sightings, San Diego ranks 16th at under 5%. The best odds are in Liverpool (United Kingdom, about 40%), Kuwait City (Kuwait, about 30%) and Manama (Bahrain, about 30%).
Same genus: Calidris
The closest relatives of the Dunlin that you can see in San Diego (genus Calidris, Calidris Sandpipers) are Western Sandpiper (about 10%) and Least Sandpiper (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Dunlin is recorded against all the birds logged in San Diego (1,695 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.
