Wood Sandpiper

Tringa glareola (Linnaeus, 1758) OD WOOSA 5540
Family: Charadriiformes > Scolopacidae

Wood Sandpiper, Edmund Fellowes

Wood Sandpiper is a smart wader with elegant proportions. A strong eye stripe and speckled plumage combine to make this a very attractive bird.

Although Britain hosts a small breeding population, confined to the boggy habitats of the very north of Scotland, most birdwatchers are likely to encounter Wood Sandpiper as a passage migrant, mainly in spring.

Migrating Wood Sandpipers break their journey to refuel, preferring small shallow wetlands with plenty of emergent vegetation. Individuals using such sites can be surprisingly difficult to see as they forage amongst the tall plants. In flight, Wood Sandpipers show off dark upperparts and a square white-rump, and they often call with a quickly repeated reedy whistle as they fly away.

Select a topic for more facts and statistics about the Wood Sandpiper

  • Breeding
  • Winter

Identification

Wood Sandpiper identification is sometimes difficult. The following article may help when identifying Wood Sandpiper.

related video

Identifying Ruff

Ruff. Photograph by Ed Drewitt

Ruff, with their variable size and plumage, often present identification issues. However, by learning how to recognise Ruff in their various guises through this video, you’ll be able to pick them out with confidence, and have a great reference point for identifying other similar-looking waders.

SONGS AND CALLS

Listen to example recordings of the main vocalisations of Wood Sandpiper, provided by xeno-canto contributors.

Call

Song

Develop your bird ID skills with our training courses

Our interactive online courses are a great way to develop your bird identification skills, whether you're new to the hobby or a competent birder looking to hone your abilities.

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Status and Trends

Population size and trends and patterns of distribution based on BTO surveys and atlases with data collected by BTO volunteers.

CONSERVATION STATUS

This species can be found on the following statutory and conservation listings and schedules.

POPULATION SIZE

POPULATION CHANGE

The small population of Wood Sandpiper breeding in Scotland has increased strongly since the 1960s (Chisholm 2007), and particularly over the last 25 years, to a five-year mean of 36 breeding pairs over the period 2015–2019 (Eaton et al. 2021). The European population is believed to be stable and has maintained it's range in recent decades (Keller et al. 2020).

DISTRIBUTION

Wood Sandpipers are very rare breeding waders of boggy habitats in Scotland. Owing to the sensitivity of some of its breeding haunts, breeding distribution is shown here at 50-km resolution. Most breed in Sutherland and Caithness, but also in Inverness-shire, Wester Ross and the Outer Hebrides.

Occupied 10-km squares in UK

European Distribution Map

European Breeding Bird Atlas 2

DISTRIBUTION CHANGE

Range size and population size have both increased slightly since the early 1990s.

Change in occupied 10-km squares in the UK

SEASONALITY

Wood Sandpiper is a summer visitor and passage migrant in spring and autumn.

Weekly occurence of Wood Sandpiper from BirdTrack
Weekly occurrence patterns (shaded cells) and reporting rates (vertical bars) based on BirdTrack data. Reporting rates give the likelihood of encountering the species each week.

Movement

Information about movement and migration based on online bird portals (e.g. BirdTrack), Ringing schemes and tracking studies.

An overview of year-round movements for the whole of Europe can be seen on the EuroBirdPortal viewer.

RINGING RECOVERIES

View a summary of recoveries in the Online Ringing Report.

Foreign locations of birds ringed or recovered in Britain & Ireland

Foreign locations of Wood Sandpiper ringed or recovered in Britain & Ireland
Encountered in: Winter (Nov-Feb); Spring (Mar-Apr); Summer (May-Jul); Autumn (Aug-Oct)

Biology

Lifecycle and body size information about Wood Sandpiper, including statistics on nesting, eggs and lifespan based on BTO ringing and nest recording data.

PRODUCTIVITY & NESTING

SURVIVAL & LONGEVITY

View number ringed each year in the Online Ringing Report

BIOMETRICS

Feather measurements and photos on featherbase

CODES & CLASSIFICATION

For information in another language (where available) click on a linked name

Gaelic: Luatharan-coille
Welsh: Pibydd Graean
Catalan: valona
Czech: vodouš bahenní
Danish: Tinksmed
Dutch: Bosruiter
Estonian: mudatilder
Finnish: liro
French: Chevalier sylvain
German: Bruchwasserläufer
Hungarian: réti cankó
Icelandic: Flóastelkur
Irish: Gobadán Coille
Italian: Piro piro boschereccio
Latvian: purva tilbite
Lithuanian: miškinis tikutis
Norwegian: Grønnstilk
Polish: leczak
Portuguese: maçarico-de-dorso-malhado
Slovak: kalužiak mociarny
Slovenian: mocvirski martinec
Spanish: Andarríos bastardo
Swedish: grönbena

Research

Interpretation and scientific publications about Wood Sandpiper from BTO scientists.

CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS

Causes of change

It is not clear why the number of breeding Wood Sandpipers has increased. It has been suggested that the increases in some years could be due to increased numbers of migrants, some of which remain to breed (Chisholm 2007), but this is speculative.

Links to more information from ConservationEvidence.com

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