Five Cool Shorebirds to Watch Out for During Migration Season in San Diego

Fall is migration time for many birds, including shorebirds. San Diegans are blessed with being on the receiving end of many visitors and migrators due to the mild climate. It can be fun seeing unusual birds as they pass through the area to their final winter destination.

Here are a list of some shorebirds that have been seen migrating through the San Diego area as of September 2010. Some will be staying the winter, some will continue on to other places. Many of them look similar, but can be distinguished by noticing differences in size, bill curvature and other body markings.

Western Sandpiper

Western sandpipers are very gregarious and are rarely seen on their own. They are very small, a little larger than a song sparrow, about six inches long, mostly brown with mainly white bellies and a mottled brown chest/neck area. The sounds they make are like little chattering peeps. Western sandpipers can be confused with sanderlings except that they are smaller and have slightly curved bills. These birds can be seen around lakes and river mouths such as Lake Murray and the San Diego river channel.

Sanderling

Sanderlings look very similar to Western sandpipers, but are a little larger (or longer) with shorter, straighter bills and smaller eyes. They can be solitary or be found in groups. Often, they associate with other shorebirds such as killdeer. Sanderlings can be found in many of the same places that Western sandpipers are found such as Lake Murray and around areas with brackish waters such as river mouths or on beaches not far from river mouths.

Greater/Lesser Yellowlegs:

Greater yellowlegs are large shorebirds with long, yellow legs, a long, straight bill and brown speckled bodies. The lesser yellowlegs looks very similar, except smaller. The way to tell them apart is by their calls. Yellowlegs like to live in marshes, ponds and brackish waters and are common around lakes like Lake Murray or Otay Lakes, but are shy around people. Yellowlegs can be found alone or with others and like to associate themselves with other shorebirds like killdeer and sandpipers.

Baird's Sandpiper:

Baird's sandpipers are actually unusual to see in San Diego, but they are seen. Recently, they've been seen around the salt-flats at the southern end of San Diego Bay. They're also known to be seen around the other river mouths, but infrequently. These sandpipers look very similar to sanderlings and Western sandpipers except that they are smaller, about five inches long, and have larger, rounder eyes.

Spotted Sandpiper:

Spotted sandpipers are very common and can be found around any body of fresh or brackish water in the county as well as on sandy beaches. When they first arrive after the summer, they are often heavily spotted on their chest and bellies. But, after they molt, they only retain a small amount of spots on their bellies near their tails. In the spring, they begin to gain their full spotted bellies and chests again before they migrate. At first glance, they look similar to slightly larger Western sandpipers, but one distinguishing characteristic is that they "teeter" or move their backside up and down as they feed or get nervous. There is no known explanation for why they do this, but it's one of the things they do that makes it easy to tell them apart from most other sandpipers.

For more photos of these species as well as information on their calls, lifestyle and migration, visit:

http://www.allaboutbirds.org and place the name of the bird in their search box at the top of the page.