Eurynorhynchus pygmeus

Geographic Range

Spoon-billed Sandpipers ( Eurynorhynchus pygmeus ), are long distance migrants of the East Asian Australian Flyway. Individuals fly over 5,000 miles a year, traveling from north-east Russia to southern Asia annually. This species summers in the Russian arctic, breeding along the coast of the Bering Sea. The largest populations can be found on the tundras of the Chukotsk peninsula. In winter, the species flies down the Pacific coast of Asia, traveling through Russia, Japan, and Korea to reach their final wintering grounds. Stable wintering populations have been found in southern China, Thailand, Bangladesh, and Vietnam, with sixty percent of the population wintering on the Gulf of Mottama in Myanmar.

• Biogeographic Regions
• palearctic palearctic
  • native native
• oriental oriental
  • native native

Habitat

As a long distance migrant, Spoon-billed Sandpipers travel through a variety of habitats. In the summer, they reside in the tundras of arctic Russia. The species breeds in tundra grasslands, vegetated with mosses, willows, and crowberry plants, where they feed among intertidal sandbars along the coast. These sandpipers have a very specific breeding ground, requiring both crowberry vegetation and nearby lakes or marshes for feeding. These breeding grounds often have nearby estuaries and mudflats to feed upon. As a coastal species, these sandpipers have never been recorded to breed further than 5km from the shoreline. Staying near coastal mudflats for food, this species is usually found at sea level elevation. In the winter, the species inhabits coastal areas in southern Asia near the equator. Here they prefer coastal mudflats with low vegetation. These sandpipers prefer sandy intertidal areas with a thin layer of mud where they can find small invertebrates to feed on. Their optimal wintering habitat has shallow water pools, a sandy coast, and a soft layer of mud for feeding. These habitats can be found in mudflats, salt flats, river deltas, and tidal estuaries.

• Habitat Regions
• temperate temperate
• tropical tropical
• polar polar
• terrestrial terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• tundra tundra
• savanna or grassland savanna or grassland

• Aquatic Biomes
• lakes and ponds
• temporary pools
• coastal coastal
• brackish water brackish water

• Wetlands
• marsh marsh

• Other Habitat Features
• estuarine estuarine

Physical Description

Spoon-billed Sandpipers are a unique species in their possession of a spatulated bill. During the breeding season their plumage has a rusty orange color on their head and shoulders, with dark spotting on the breast leading to a white underbelly. During the nonbreeding season the species loses their rufous color for a gray head and shoulders. Throughout the year, the legs and bill stay black. Females are slightly larger than males, averaging 34 grams versus 29.5 grams for males.

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic endothermic
• bilateral symmetry bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• female larger

Reproduction

Spoon-billed Sandpipers are a monogamous species, with two thirds of adults returning to the same breeding spot every year. The same pair breed together for multiple seasons. Males will perform displays over their territory, performing courtship dances to attract a mate. Once the male has found a mate, he will stop doing courtship displays.

• Mating System
• monogamous monogamous

Spoon-billed Sandpipers have one breeding season a year, nesting June-July. Each clutch contains four eggs. If the first clutch is lost, the mother will lay another batch of eggs. Both adults take turns incubating the eggs, until they hatch 19-23 days after being incubated. Chicks will be completely independent by the time they are 15-20 days old, as both parents will have left the nest. On average, Spoon-billed Sandpipers are considered sexually mature after their second year.

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous iteroparous
• seasonal breeding seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual sexual
• oviparous oviparous

Spoon-billed Sandpipers will build two nests every year in preparation of laying their eggs. The male defends a certain territory that he will return to every year. Chicks will be incubated and initially taken care of by both parents before and after hatching. Females leave the nest on average five days after the eggs have hatched, while males stay fifteen to twenty days after the eggs have hatched.

• Parental Investment
• altricial altricial
• male parental care male parental care
• female parental care female parental care
• pre-fertilization
  • protecting
    • male
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • male
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • male
    • female
• pre-independence
  • provisioning
    • male
    • female

Lifespan/Longevity

Overall, there is little known about the lifespan of these birds. This species is critically endangered with only a few hundred individuals left, making it rare to encounter the same individual multiple times within its lifetime. The oldest known species in the wild is sixteen years old, and the oldest known in captivity is fourteen years old. Due to hunting and habitat loss, the average lifespan of these birds is only four and a half years.

Behavior

These sandpipers are a diurnal species, meaning they are most active during the day. Their feeding depends on the tidal cycle, foraging during low tide in shallow mudflats. While foraging, they are recognizable due to the side to side movement of their beaks through the mud. They are predominantly solitary, but may feed alongside groups of other shorebirds. As solitary birds, they are not very social and do not have a distinguished territory outside of their breeding season. Although, they are very site faithful overall. Flying 5,000 miles a year, they will never wander over 5 km from the shoreline as a terricolous species.

• Key Behaviors
• terricolous
• flies
• diurnal diurnal
• motile motile
• migratory migratory
• solitary solitary
• territorial territorial

Home Range

As a long distance migrant, this species does not have a particular home range, but will always stay within 5 kilometers from the coast of the Pacific Ocean.

Communication and Perception

These birds communicate and perceive through both visual and acoustic communication. During the breeding season, males perform courtship flights to attract a mate, rapidly beating their wings in flight and repeating a trilling noise. Breeding season is when the birds are most vocal, making a variety of sounds both in flight and on the ground to attract a mate. In the non-breeding season, communication is limited to smaller, shriller noises. On the ground an ascending “whoeatt...whoeatt” noise can be heard, while in flight a short “puree”, “preep” or shrill “wheet” noise can be heard.

• Communication Channels
• visual visual
• acoustic acoustic

• Perception Channels
• visual visual
• tactile tactile
• acoustic acoustic
• chemical chemical

Food Habits

Spoon-billed Sandpipers are omnivores, eating both animal and plant products. During the breeding season, their diet consists mostly of invertebrates such as spiders, beetles, flies, and mosquitoes along with some grass-seeds and berries. Generally, chicks are fed flies, beetles, and seeds. During the non-breeding season adults will eat larval crustaceans and juvenile molluscs. They eat a plethora of marine invertebrates, such as worms and shrimp.

• Primary Diet
• carnivore carnivore
  • insectivore insectivore
  • eats non-insect arthropods
  • molluscivore molluscivore
  • vermivore
• herbivore herbivore
  • granivore granivore
• omnivore omnivore

• Animal Foods
• insects
• terrestrial non-insect arthropods
• mollusks
• terrestrial worms
• aquatic or marine worms
• aquatic crustaceans

• Plant Foods
• seeds, grains, and nuts

Predation

Spoon-billed Sandpipers suffer predation from land animals such as foxes and wild dogs, and from predators up above, such as the skua. These predators will eat eggs from the sandpipers nest or attack the sandpipers while foraging. Due to this, these sandpipers will forage alone or in large clearings in order to be able to spot predators from afar. During the breeding season, their rusty orange breeding plumage helps them blend in with the lichen they build their nests upon.

Ecosystem Roles

Spoon-billed Sandpipers are very important in maintaining the health of intertidal mudflats. Through their foraging behavior, these sandpipers help control the invertebrate and crustacean populations along these mudflats. This in turn benefits all marine life and humans, as healthy mudflats are an integral part of marine ecosystems. Without them, marine life wouldn't exist and humans would not be able to use marine organisms as a food source. The preservation of these mudflats also help prevent coastal flooding and storm surges. Also, these sandpipers are important to marine ecosystems, as they facilitate energy and nutrient exchanges from both land and sea. Moreover, these birds serve as seed dispersers, as their diet consists of seeds and berries.

• Ecosystem Impact
• disperses seeds
• creates habitat

Economic Importance for Humans: Positive

Through sustaining intertidal mudflat health, these sandpipers help maintain the marine ecosystems that humans benefit from. Without healthy mudflats, human settlements would be subjected to more floods and storm surges. Also, fewer marine organisms would be available as food sources for humans. Although illegal and destructive to bird populations, the trapping of Spoon-billed Sandpipers serves as an income for some hunters. Especially in their wintering grounds of Myanmar, the illegal hunting of spoonies is a popular source of income for locals, as they set up large nets to catch shorebirds for food. As the country is trying to move away from illegal hunting, ecotourism has become a new popular income surrounding the Spoon-billed Sandpiper.

• Positive Impacts
• food food
• ecotourism ecotourism
• controls pest population

Economic Importance for Humans: Negative

Traveling thousands of miles a year, these sandpipers require important habitats to be able to stay fueled for their long journeys. Estuaries and mudflats are vital for these sandpipers' survival. But with human expansion, many of these vital habitats are being destroyed, as rivers are getting dammed and mudflats are getting drained for new industrial projects. In order to save this species, countries will have to give up potential industrial projects to preserve vital habitats. This could potentially be an economic loss for participating countries.

Conservation Status

This species is classified as critically endangered on the IUCN redlist, with only an estimated 120 breeding pairs left in the wild. This species has been classified as a Class 1 protected species on the National Key Protected Wild Animal List of China. There is conservation work being done throughout the species migration route, with new protected wildlife areas and hunting laws for the birds in China, Russia, Vietnam, and Thailand. Annual surveys are done at their breeding sites. Awareness is increasing on their endangerment through outreach groups in many countries throughout their breeding route. A captive breeding program was started in 2011 for the species, but has ultimately been unsuccessful with only two chicks surviving to adulthood in the past 10 years.

Additional Links

Encyclopedia of Life

Contributors

Claire Labuda (author), Colorado State University, Tanya Dewey (editor), University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

References

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