Calidris alpina
Silhouette: Edwin Price · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
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 Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve on a given day, based on 38 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 122nd most-seen of the 216 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.
January and March
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Dunlin in Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in February and April–December, the lowest months. Those are among Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve's driest months, with about 30 mm of rain a month against 150 mm in June.
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.
19th of 32
Of the 32 parks where we can rate Dunlin sightings, Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve ranks 19th at under 5%. The best odds are in Wadden Sea National Park (Germany, about 40%), Doñana National Park (Spain, about 30%) and Kiskunság National Park (Hungary, about 20%). All parks ranked.
Same genus: Calidris
The closest relatives of the Dunlin that you can see in Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve (genus Calidris, Calidris Sandpipers) are Sanderling (about 40%), Least Sandpiper (about 40%) and Western Sandpiper (about 20%), 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 Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve (38 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.
