Tringa ochropus
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
The green sandpiper (Tringa ochropus) is a small wader (shorebird) of the Old World. The green sandpiper represents an ancient lineage of the genus Tringa; its only close living relative is the solitary sandpiper (T. solitaria). They both have brown wings with little light dots and a delicate but contrasting neck and chest pattern. In addition, both species nest in trees, unlike most other scolopacids.
Given its basal position in Tringa, it is fairly unsurprising that suspected cases of hybridisation between this species and the common sandpiper (A. hypoleucos) of the sister genus Actitis have been reported. The green sandpiper was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the current binomial name Tringa ochropus. The genus name Tringa is the Neo-Latin name given to the green sandpiper by Aldrovandus in 1599 based on Ancient Greek trungas, a thrush-sized, white-rumped, tail-bobbing wading bird mentioned by Aristotle. The specific ochropus is from Ancient Greek okhros, "ochre", and pous, "foot". The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
This species is a somewhat... Wikipedia →
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Green Sandpiper sighting in Nairobi National Park on a given day, based on 334 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 124th most-seen of the 371 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
September
In that month about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Green Sandpiper in Nairobi National Park on a given day, against under 5% in May and June, the lowest months. That is one of Nairobi National Park's driest months, with about 30 mm of rain against 180 mm in April.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Green 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 70
Of the 70 parks where we can rate Green Sandpiper sightings, Nairobi National Park ranks 10th at about 20%. The best odds are in Bale Mountains National Park (Ethiopia, about 50%), Keoladeo National Park (India, about 40%) and Kaziranga National Park (India, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same genus: Tringa
The closest relatives of the Green Sandpiper that you can see in Nairobi National Park (genus Tringa, Shanks, Tattlers, and Allies) are Wood Sandpiper (about 30%), Common Greenshank (about 10%) and Marsh Sandpiper (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Green Sandpiper is recorded against all the birds logged in Nairobi National Park (334 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.
