Actitis hypoleucos
Silhouette: Rebecca Groom · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~70% in a week >90%
The common sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) is a small Palearctic wader. This bird and its American sister species, the spotted sandpiper (A. macularia), make up the genus Actitis. They are parapatric and replace each other geographically; stray birds of either species may settle down with breeders of the other and hybridize. Hybridization has also been reported between the common sandpiper and the green sandpiper, a member of the closely related genus Tringa.
The common sandpiper was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Tringa hypoleucos. The species is now placed together with the spotted sandpiper in the genus Actitis that was introduced in 1811 by the German zoologist Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger. The genus name Actitis is from Ancient Greek aktites meaning "coast-dweller" from akte meaning "coast". The specific epithet hypoleucos combines the Ancient Greek hupo meaning "beneath" with leukos meaning "white". The species is monotypic and no subspecies are recognised.
The adult is 18–20 cm (7.1–7.9 in) long with a 32–35 cm (13–14 in) wingspan. It has greyish... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zanzibar City | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 2 | Naha | 🇯🇵 Japan | |
| 3 | Đà Nẵng | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 4 | Dakar | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 5 | Vasai-Virar | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Denpasar | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 7 | Manama | 🇧🇭 Bahrain | |
| 8 | Mombasa | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 9 | Rajkot | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Brazzaville | 🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dresden Zoo | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 2 | New England Aquarium | 🇺🇸 United States |
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Common Sandpiper sighting in Lower Zambezi National Park on a given day, based on 126 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 54th most-seen of the 241 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 70%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
August
In that month about 60% of wildlife watchers report a Common Sandpiper in Lower Zambezi National Park on a given day, against about 10% in May, the lowest month. That is one of Lower Zambezi National Park's driest months, with almost no rain against 290 mm in January. February and March have too few records to rate.
Between 3 and 6 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Common Sandpiper sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
10th of 109
Of the 109 parks where we can rate Common Sandpiper sightings, Lower Zambezi National Park ranks 10th at about 40%. The best odds are in Sundarbans National Park (India, about 80%), Niokolo-Koba National Park (Senegal, about 60%) and Liwonde National Park (Malawi, about 50%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Scolopacidae
The closest relatives of the Common Sandpiper that you can see in Lower Zambezi National Park (family Scolopacidae, Sandpipers and Allies) are Wood Sandpiper (about 30%), Common Greenshank (about 30%) and Ruff (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Common Sandpiper is recorded against all the birds logged in Lower Zambezi National Park (126 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.
