Tringa incana
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The wandering tattler (Tringa incana) is a medium-sized shorebird, similar in appearance to the closely related gray-tailed tattler (T. brevipes). The tattlers are unique among the species of Tringa for having unpatterned, greyish wings and backs, and a scaly breast pattern extending more or less onto the belly in breeding plumage, in which both also have a rather prominent supercilium.
The wandering tattler was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it in the genus Scolopax and coined the binomial name Scolopax incana. Gmelin based his description on the "ash-coloured snipe" that had been described in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his book A General Synopsis of Birds. Latham's specimen had been supplied by the naturalist Joseph Banks. It had been collected in 1777 by William Anderson on the island of Mo'orea in the Society Islands during James Cook's third voyage to the Pacific Ocean. The wandering tattler was moved to the genus Heteroscelus which had been introduced by Spencer Fullerton Baird in 1858. and then in 2006 moved to... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Isla del Coco National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 2 | Galápagos Islands | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 3 | Cabo Pulmo National Park | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 4 | Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 5 | Coiba National Park | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 6 | Channel Islands National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Katmai National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Ostional Wildlife Refuge | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 9 | Pacific Rim National Park Reserve | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 10 | Great Bear Rainforest | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 11 | El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 12 | Las Baulas Marine National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 13 | Kenai Fjords National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 14 | Olympic National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 15 | Marino Ballena National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 16 | Redwood National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 17 | Manuel Antonio National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Diego | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Anchorage | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Los Angeles | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | San Francisco | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Seattle | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Tokyo | 🇯🇵 Japan |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Wandering Tattler sighting in Katmai National Park on a given day, based on 7 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 80th most-seen of the 93 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June and August
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Wandering Tattler in Katmai National Park on a given day, against under 5% in March, May, July and September, the lowest months. April and October–February have too few records to rate.
Between noon and 3 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Wandering Tattler sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
7th of 17
Of the 17 parks where we can rate Wandering Tattler sightings, Katmai National Park ranks 7th at under 5%. The best odds are in Isla del Coco National Park (Costa Rica, about 50%), Galápagos Islands (Ecuador, about 40%) and Cabo Pulmo National Park (Mexico, about 10%).
Same genus: Tringa
The closest relatives of the Wandering Tattler that you can see in Katmai National Park (genus Tringa, Shanks, Tattlers, and Allies) are Greater Yellowlegs (about 60%) and Lesser Yellowlegs (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Wandering Tattler is recorded against all the birds logged in Katmai National Park (7 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
