Sanderling Plan - Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network

PURPOSE
This document focuses on the Sanderling in the Americas, especially North America.
Future revisions will seek to include more complete information for Latin American regions as it
becomes available. The present plan covers our current knowledge of Sanderling distribution,
life history, and population sizes and trends. In addition, the plan describes and lists current
threats and management needs, and outlines suggested conservation actions.
STATUS AND NATURAL HISTORY
Most of the research on Sanderlings has focused on them during the nonbreeding season,
with the most extensive work being on foraging behavior, spacing, and population structure
(Myers 1981, 1983b, 1984; Myers et al. 1979a, 1979b, 1981; Pitelka et al. 1980), as well as
physiology on migration and the wintering grounds (Castro et al. 1989, 1992; Castro and Myers
1990, 1993). More recent studies have noted apparent rapid declines in regional populations,
with the apparent cause being habitat degradation and increasing recreational use of sandy
beaches (MacWhirter et al. 2002).
The Sanderling is the well-known, small, plump sandpiper of sandy ocean beaches, most
often seen running along at the edge of incoming and receding waves. Less often, Sanderlings
occur at sand/mudflats, lagoons and inland lake shores, or intertidal rocky shores. They feed on
aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates, such as small crustaceans and bivalve mollusks, and less
frequently on small polychaete worms, insects, and talitrid amphipods (MacWhirter et al. 2002).
Although Sanderlings are North America’s most widespread maritime shorebird during winter,
local numbers are usually small. Their wintering range is extraordinarily wide, spanning 100 o
latitude and encompassing most temperate and tropical beaches in the Americas (MacWhirter et
al. 2002). Sanderlings winter between 50 o N and 50 o S on the Pacific Coast (southern British
Columbia to southern Chile), and between 42°N and 50°S on the Atlantic Coast (Massachusetts
to Southern Argentina).
The Sanderling breeds across the high arctic, with highest numbers occurring in the
Canadian Arctic archipelago, Greenland, and high-arctic Siberia (MacWhirter et al. 2002).
Sanderlings nest either as single pairs or in loose colonies, and lay four eggs in a ground nest
typically situated in exposed, well-drained tundra. Eggs hatch after 23–27 days, and both sexes
WHSRN – Sanderling Conservation Plan, February 2010, v1.1 9