Dunlin

About the Dunlin

The dunlin (Calidris alpina) is a small wader in the genus Calidris. The English name is a dialect form of "dunling", first recorded in 1531–1532. It derives from dun, "dull brown", with the suffix -ling, meaning a person or thing with the given quality. It is a circumpolar breeder in Arctic or subarctic regions. Birds that breed in western Europe are short-distance migrants largely staying on western and southern European and northwest African coasts; those breeding in far northern Europe and Asia are long-distance migrants, wintering south to Africa, southeast and west Asia. Birds that breed in Alaska and the Canadian Arctic migrate short distances to the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of North America, although those nesting in northern Alaska overwinter in Asia.

Source: Wikipedia

Classification

Scientific name

Calidris alpina

Family

Sandpipers and Allies

Order

Charadriiformes

Similar species

Other members of the sandpipers and allies family recorded in North America — a useful place to start if you are not certain of your identification.

• American Woodcock Scolopax minor
• Baird's Sandpiper Calidris bairdii
• Bar-tailed Godwit Limosa lapponica
• Black Turnstone Arenaria melanocephala
• Black-tailed Godwit Limosa limosa
• Bristle-thighed Curlew Numenius tahitiensis
• Broad-billed Sandpiper Calidris falcinellus
• Buff-breasted Sandpiper Calidris subruficollis
• Common Greenshank Tringa nebularia
• Common Redshank Tringa totanus
• Common Sandpiper Actitis hypoleucos
• Common Snipe Gallinago gallinago