Calidris ferruginea
Silhouette: Edwin Price · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
The curlew sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea) is a small wader. It is a long-distance migrant, breeding in the bogs and coastal lowlands of the Siberian Arctic, arriving there in June and staying until August or September. After the breeding season, it migrates south to spend the winter in Africa and along the coasts of Oceania and southern Eurasia, occupying tidal mudflats and saltpans.
It has three main plumages that change with maturity and season. The non-breeding plumage shows brown-greyish upperparts and white underparts. The breeding plumage is much more striking, with the entire front tinted a deep rusty colour, more intensely so in males. The first-year bird does not migrate or breed, instead remaining in its overwintering range throughout the breeding season. It may occasionally moult into its breeding plumage, which is largely similar to that of an adult but with white spots on the chest. The non-breeding juvenile plumage is also like that of an adult, except with creamy-coloured streaking on the breast and pale fringes on some of the wing feathers, leading to a scaly appearance. Adults superficially resemble the larger but shorter-billed red knot and the red phalarope in breeding plumage, and the dunlin and stilt sandpiper while not breeding. Juveniles may be confused with the larger and yellow-legged juvenile ruff, or the juvenile dunlin, which has a streaked chest.
The curlew sandpiper's courtship behaviour is complex and involves several distinct displays. In one, the male constructs a faux nest on the ground to present to the female. Another is a graceful aerial chase accompanied by frequent warbling calls. In a third, the male dances around the female on the ground, displaying his tail feathers and rump; this display sometimes culminates in copulation. The female almost always lays one clutch of eggs, usually around the end of June, which hatch after 20 days and fully fledge at 14–20 days. Chicks are relatively mature and mobile at birth. The curlew sandpiper's breeding success is linked to the lemming population; in years with many lemmings, its predators hunt them instead. It is omnivorous, foraging in large flocks in wetlands for various invertebrates, including crabs and insects.
The curlew sandpiper is listed as a vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List because land development and the invasive smooth cordgrass have caused significant habitat loss to its overwintering and migratory sites, and climate change has lowered its breeding productivity. The curlew sandpiper has an estimated annual survival rate of 75–80%. Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zanzibar City | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 2 | Maputo | 🇲🇿 Mozambique | |
| 3 | Manama | 🇧🇭 Bahrain | |
| 4 | Kuwait City | 🇰🇼 Kuwait | |
| 5 | Quanzhou | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 6 | Karachi | 🇵🇰 Pakistan | |
| 7 | Dar es-Salaam | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 8 | Mombasa | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 9 | Mumbai | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Dubai | 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Curlew Sandpiper sighting in Rottnest Island on a given day, based on 22 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 56th most-seen of the 81 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.
January and February
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Curlew Sandpiper in Rottnest Island on a given day, against under 5% in March–April and June–December, the lowest months. Those are among Rottnest Island's driest months, with about 20 mm of rain a month against 120 mm in June.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Curlew Sandpiper sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
9th of 32
Of the 32 parks where we can rate Curlew Sandpiper sightings, Rottnest Island ranks 9th at about 10%. The best odds are in West Coast National Park (South Africa, about 50%), Doñana National Park (Spain, about 10%) and Ngorongoro Conservation Area (Tanzania, about 10%).
Same genus: Calidris
The closest relatives of the Curlew Sandpiper that you can see in Rottnest Island (genus Calidris, Calidris Sandpipers) are Red-necked Stint (about 60%), Sanderling (about 20%) and Sharp-tailed Sandpiper (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Curlew Sandpiper is recorded against all the birds logged in Rottnest Island (22 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.
