Little Stint ( Calidris minuta, family: Scolopacidae)

Little stint Kruger National Park birds The Little Stint (Latin name Calidris minuta) is described in Roberts Birds of Southern Africa, 7th Edition. This bird has a unique Roberts number of 274 and you will find a full description of this bird on page 366 also a picture of the Little Stint on page 369. The Little Stint belongs to the family of birds classified as Scolopacidae.

The map of the Kruger you see on this page shows the areas (coloured orange) where this bird has been identified. The basic information was provided by the Avian Demographic Unit based at UCT and I created the maps from that information ... the green dots show the locations of the various Kruger National Park Rest Camps

The Little Stint is neither Endemic or near Endemic to the Kruger National Park. It is however a common summer visitor

In terms of distribution of the Little Stint in the Kruger National Park you may not see it in all areas. Little Stint : see above distribution map.

The Little Stint.

Kruger Park Little StintIdentification assistance for this avian species ...

One of the first indicators to take note of when trying to identify a bird is it relative size. For example how big is the bird compared to a well known familiar bird. The Little Stint is a small bird about the size of a house sparrow. Do not take this relative indicator as anything other than a rough easy to remember indicator. It is not a accurate visualization. The height of the Little Stint is about 14 cms and its weight is about 24 gms

The male and female Little Stint have the same plumage and colours

  • Head is grey.
  • Eye is brown.
  • Bill is black.
  • Throat is whie.
  • Back is grey.
  • Legs are grey.

This bird has normally proportioned leg length.

Main diet items for this bird ...

The Little Stint feeds on the ground mainly

Invertebrates

Aquatic life forms

Breeding and nesting habits for this bird ...

The Little Stint takes on more than a single mate (it is bigamous).

The nesting habit of Little Stint is extra limital

Habitat and flocking behaviour for this bird ...

The preferred habitats for Little Stint are: wetlands

You can see Little Stint in flocks. The bird will often also be seen singly.

Names of this avian species in other languages ...

Xhosa ... Unknown

Zulu ... Unknown

Afrikaans ...Kleinstrandloper

German ... Zwergstrandlufer

Portuguese ... Pilrito-pequeno

French ... Bcasseau minute

Dutch ... Kleine Strandloper

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For in-depth birding information please refer to these authoritative avian references ...

Robert's 7th edition number ... 274

The main reference source for this data was "Roberts - Birds of Southern Africa, 7th Edition" . Other references were "Newmans Birds of the Kruger Park" by Keith Newman published circa 1980 . Names in foreign languages were obtained from the Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town website , www.fitzpatrick.uct.ac.za