Solitary Sandpiper

Look for

A small, dark-backed sandpiper with white eye-ring ("spectacles"), greenish legs, and a dark checkered back with fine white spots. Smaller than a yellowlegs. Flicks wings constantly when nervous.

Size: ~8.5" — smaller than a robin.

Listen for

• Call: a sharp, high "peet-weet-weet!" (higher than Spotted Sandpiper's call) — given in flight or when flushed.
• Generally silent when foraging.

Where in Memphis

The most likely shorebird at a puddle. Unlike most sandpipers, Solitary Sandpipers use tiny wet spots — forest puddles, flooded woods, drainage ditches, park pond edges.

• Wolf River Greenway puddles and flooded trails
• Ensley Bottoms wet spots
• Park ponds after rain
• Backyard pools and drainage ditches — they'll show up anywhere

A distinctive trait: they use small, isolated wetlands where other shorebirds never appear.

Behavior

• Usually alone (hence the name) — or in pairs. Never in big shorebird flocks.
• Walks deliberately, bobbing head and flicking wings.
• Eats tiny invertebrates picked from surface of water or mud.
• Flushes straight up with a sharp call when startled.

Story

The tree-nesting shorebird

Solitary Sandpipers are one of only two shorebirds that nest in trees — they use old songbird nests (robins, jays, kingbirds) in Canadian boreal forest. Shorebirds that nest on the ground is normal; shorebirds in old American Robin nests is bizarre.

The name that fits

"Solitary" isn't just a description — it's the field mark. Watching a shorebird wander alone on a muddy puddle in Memphis is almost certainly this species. Yellowlegs, Sandpipers, Peeps all flock; the Solitary doesn't.

The Memphis puddle bird

If you pay attention after spring rains at any Memphis park, flooded woods, or even flooded corner of Shelby Farms, you'll often find one Solitary Sandpiper walking alone. It's a rewarding species to search for.

Fun facts

• They winter as far south as Argentina — an Arctic-to-Patagonia migration.
• Their scientific genus Tringa comes from Aristotle's Greek for a bobbing shorebird.
• They occasionally catch small fish despite being insect specialists.
• Oldest known wild Solitary Sandpiper: 10+ years.