List of Birds of Malta - Sandpipers and Allies

Sandpipers and Allies

Order: Charadriiformes. Family: Scolopacidae

The Scolopacidae are a large diverse family of small to medium sized shorebirds including the sandpipers, curlews, godwits, shanks, tattlers, woodcocks, snipes, dowitchers and phalaropes. The majority of species eat small invertebrates picked out of the mud or soil. Variation in length of legs and bills enable different species to feed in the same habitat, particularly on the coast, without direct competition for food. There are about 89 species worldwide and 32 species which occur in Malta.

• Eurasian Woodcock Scolopax rusticola
• Jack Snipe Lymnocryptes minimus
• Great Snipe Gallinago media
• Common Snipe Gallinago gallinago
• Black-tailed Godwit Limosa limosa
• Bar-tailed Godwit Limosa lapponica (A)
• Whimbrel Numenius phaeopus
• Slender-billed Curlew Numenius tenuirostris (A)
• Eurasian Curlew Numenius arquata
• Upland Sandpiper Bartramia longicauda (A)
• Terek Sandpiper Xenus cinereus (A)
• Common Sandpiper Actitis hypoleucos
• Green Sandpiper Tringa ochropus
• Spotted Redshank Tringa erythropus
• Common Greenshank Tringa nebularia
• Marsh Sandpiper Tringa stagnatilis
• Wood Sandpiper Tringa glareola
• Common Redshank Tringa totanus
• Ruddy Turnstone Arenaria interpres
• Red Knot Calidris canutus (A)
• Sanderling Calidris alba
• Little Stint Calidris minuta
• Temminck's Stint Calidris temminckii
• Pectoral Sandpiper Calidris melanotos (A)
• Curlew Sandpiper Calidris ferruginea
• Dunlin Calidris alpina
• Purple Sandpiper Calidris maritima (A)
• Broad-billed Sandpiper Limicola falcinellus (A)
• Buff-breasted Sandpiper Tryngites subruficollis (A)
• Ruff Philomachus pugnax
• Red-necked Phalarope Phalaropus lobatus (A)
• Red Phalarope Phalaropus fulicarius (A)