Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Scolopacidae
Genus: Calidris
Species: C. ferruginea
Binomial name: Calidris ferruginea
Synonyms: Erolia ferruginea
Common names: Curlew sandpiper
Calidris ferruginea (Curlew sandpiper) is a small, migrating wader that breeds on the tundra of Arctic Siberia. After breeding these birds migrate south to Africa, Australia, India and New Zealand. In New Zealand, they inhabit mudflats, sandspits and estuaries.
These birds are small waders at >21 cm in length. They have a long neck, a long, decurved bill and long legs and a white rump. The breeding adults in Siberia have patterned dark grey upperparts and brick-red underparts. In New Zealand, this bird is pale grey above and white below, and shows an obvious white supercilium (a stripe which runs from the base of the bird's beak to above its eye).
It forages by probing in soft mud on marshes and the coast, mainly picking up marine worms and crustaceans.
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