Wood Sandpiper ( Tringa glareola, family: Scolopacidae)
The Wood Sandpiper (Latin name Tringa glareola) is described in Roberts
Birds of Southern Africa, 7th Edition. This bird has a unique Roberts
number of 266 and you will find a full description of this bird on page
357 also a picture of the Wood Sandpiper on page 369. The Wood Sandpiper
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 Wood Sandpiper is neither Endemic or near Endemic to the Kruger National Park. It is however a common summer visitor
In terms of distribution of the Wood Sandpiper in the Kruger National Park you may not see it in all areas. Wood Sandpiper : see above distribution map.
The Wood Sandpiper.
Identification assistance for this avian species ...
The Wood Sandpiper is a smallish bird but somewhat larger than a house sparrow. The height of the Wood Sandpiper is about 21 cms and its weight is about 65 gms
The male and female Wood Sandpiper have the same plumage and colours
- Head is black.
- Eye is brown.
- Bill is black.
- Throat is white.
- Back is black.
- Legs are olive.
This bird has long legs.
Main diet items for this bird ...
The Wood Sandpiper feeds in or around water mainly
Invertebrates
Aquatic life forms
Breeding and nesting habits for this bird ...
The Wood Sandpiper takes on more than a single mate (it is bigamous).
The nesting habit of Wood Sandpiper is extra limital
Habitat and flocking behaviour for this bird ...
The preferred habitats for Wood Sandpiper are: wetlands
You will normally see the Wood Sandpiper by itself rather than in the company of birds of the same species.
Names of this avian species in other languages ...
Xhosa ... Uthuthula
Zulu ... Unknown
Afrikaans ...Bosruiter
German ... Bruchwasserlufer
Portuguese ... Maarico-bastardo
French ... Chevalier sylvain
Dutch ... Bosruiter
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For in-depth birding information please refer to these authoritative avian references ...
Robert's 7th edition number ... 266
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