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Information about Calidrid

Typical waders
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Purple Sandpiper, a small sandpiper or "stint"

Purple Sandpiper, a small sandpiper or "stint"
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Aves
Order:Charadriiformes
Family:Scolopacidae
Genera


see text


The calidrids or typical waders are a group of Arctic-breeding, strongly migratory wading birds. These birds form huge mixed flocks on coasts and estuaries in winter. They are the typical "peeps", small to medium-sized, long-winged and relatively short-billed.

Their bills have sensitive tips which enable them to locate buried prey items, which they typically seek with restless running and probing.

As the common name sandpiper is shared by some calidrids with more distantly related birds such as the Actitis species, the term stint is preferred in Britain for the smaller species of this group.

The calidrids' closest relatives are the two species of turnstone, and if the calidrids were to be considered a tribe Calidriini, the turnstones would be included in it.

The interrelationships of the calidrid group are not altogether well resolved. Several former genera have been included in Calidris, such as the Stilt Sandpiper (previously Micropalama himantopus), but the new placement was also not entirely satisfactory. It was suggested, for example, that the sanderling should be placed into a monotypic genus Crocethia, and the other small Calidris species separated as Erolia. Alternatively, it was suggested that the monotypic Aphriza, Limicola and Eurynorhynchus be also merged into Calidris.

A comprehensive analysis combining newly available data (Thomas et al, 2004) indicates that the extended Calidris is indeed paraphyletic (or polyphyletic if all calidrids are combined in it), but found the present DNA sequence data insufficient to resolve the relationships of some more unusual taxa such as the Curlew Sandpiper.

Still, three groups of close relatives emerge:
  1. The largest contains the smaller species, including the Sanderling, and probably also the Buff-breasted Sandpiper. If it is considered a distinct genus, the name Erolia would only apply if the Curlew Sandpiper also belongs here, as this was the type species of Erolia when first published in 1816.
  2. The genus Calidris sensu stricto contains the knots and the surfbird.
  3. Another small group contains somewhat aberrant species, namely the Ruff, the Broad-billed Sandpiper, and the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, which would use the name Philomachus.


The species, according to updated / traditional taxonomy, are as follows:
  • Genus Calidris sensu stricto - knots
  • Surfbird, Calidris virgatus / Aphriza virgata
  • Great Knot, Calidris tenuirostris
  • Red Knot, Calidris canutus
Other calidrids (all at some time placed in Calidris too)

See also

References

C. maritima

Binomial name
Calidris maritima
Brünnich, 1764

Synonyms

Erolia maritima

The Purple Sandpiper, Calidris or Erolia maritima is a small shorebird.
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A stint is one of several very small waders in the genus Calidris (or possibly Erolia), which in North America are known as peeps.

Some of these birds are difficult to identify because of the similarity between species, and various breeding,
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Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. Scientific classification also can be called scientific taxonomy, but should be distinguished from folk taxonomy, which lacks scientific basis.
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Chordata
Bateson, 1885

Typical Classes

See below

Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates.
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Aves
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders

About two dozen - see section below

Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals.
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Charadriiformes
Huxley, 1867

Families

Scolopacidae
Rostratulidae
Jacanidae
Thinocoridae
Pedionomidae
Laridae
Rhynchopidae
Sternidae
Alcidae
Stercorariidae
Glareolidae
Dromadidae
Turnicidae
Burhinidae
Chionididae
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Scolopacidae
Vigors, 1825

Genera
  • Actitis
  • Aphriza
  • Arenaria
  • Bartramia
  • Calidris
  • Coenocorypha
  • Eurynorhynchus
  • Gallinago
  • Limicola

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genus (plural: genera) is part of the Latinized name for an organism. It is a name which reflects the classification of the organism by grouping it with other closely similar organisms.
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Arctic is the region around the Earth's North Pole, opposite the Antarctic region around the South Pole. In the northern hemisphere, the Arctic includes the Arctic Ocean (which overlies the North Pole) and parts of Canada, Greenland (a territory of Denmark), Russia, the United
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Bird migration refers to the regular seasonal journeys undertaken by many species of birds. Migrations include movements of varied distances made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather.
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Charadrii

Families
  • Ibidorhynchidae
  • Recurvirostridae
  • Haematopodidae
  • Charadriidae
Waders, called shorebirds in North America (where "wader" is used to refer to long-legged wading birds such as storks and herons), are members
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Aves
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders

About two dozen - see section below

Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals.
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The beak, bill or rostrum is an external anatomical structure of birds which, in addition to eating, is used for grooming, manipulating objects, killing prey, probing for food, courtship, and feeding their young.
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Actitis
Illiger, 1811

Species

A. hypoleucos
A. macularia

Actitis, is a small genus of waders, comprising just two very similar species of bird.
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A stint is one of several very small waders in the genus Calidris (or possibly Erolia), which in North America are known as peeps.

Some of these birds are difficult to identify because of the similarity between species, and various breeding,
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Arenaria
Brisson, 1760

Species

Arenaria interpres
Arenaria melanocephala

Turnstones are two bird species, the Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres), and the Black Turnstone (
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In biology, a tribe—or infrafamily—is a rank between subfamily and genus, or between subfamily and subtribe, if that rank is used.


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Micropalama (disputed)

Species: M. himantopus

Binomial name
Micropalama himantopus
(Bonaparte, 1826)

The Stilt Sandpiper,
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C. alba

Binomial name
Calidris alba
Pallas, 1764

Sanderling breeding range. Black border marks southern limit.

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Monotypic is an adjective that refers to a taxonomic group with only one type:
  • in botany it means that a taxon has only one species; Ginkgo is a monotypic genus, while Ginkgoaceae is a monotypic family.

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In phylogenetics, a group of organisms is said to be paraphyletic (Greek para = near and phyle = race) if the group contains its most recent common ancestor, but does not contain all the descendants of that ancestor.
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polyphyletic (Greek for "of many races") if the trait its members have in common evolved separately in different places in the phylogenetic tree. Equivalently, a polyphyletic taxon does not contain the most recent common ancestor of all its members.
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DNA sequence or genetic sequence is a succession of letters representing the primary structure of a real or hypothetical DNA molecule or strand, with the capacity to carry information.
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C. ferruginea

Binomial name
Calidris ferruginea
Pontoppidan, 1763

Synonyms

Erolia ferruginea Vieillot, 1816

The Curlew Sandpiper, Calidris ferruginea
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Tryngites (disputed)
Cabanis, 1857

Species: T. subruficollis

Binomial name
Tryngites subruficollis
(Vieillot, 1819)

The
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C. ferruginea

Binomial name
Calidris ferruginea
Pontoppidan, 1763

Synonyms

Erolia ferruginea Vieillot, 1816

The Curlew Sandpiper, Calidris ferruginea
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A type species fixes the name of a genus (or of a taxon in a rank lower than genus).

Strictly speaking, a type species exists only in zoological nomenclature. As set in article 42.
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18th century - 19th century - 20th century
1780s  1790s  1800s  - 1810s -  1820s  1830s  1840s
1813 1814 1815 - 1816 - 1817 1818 1819

:
Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
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Philomachus
Moehring, 1758

Species: P. pugnax

Binomial name
Philomachus pugnax
(Linnaeus, 1758)

The Ruff (
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