''Calidris'' is a genus of
Arctic
The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...
-breeding, strongly
migratory wading birds in the family
Scolopacidae. These birds form huge mixed flocks on coasts and estuaries in winter. Migratory shorebirds are shown to have decline in reproductive traits because of temporal changes of their breeding seasons. They are the typical "
sandpipers", small to medium-sized, long-winged and relatively short-billed.
Their
bills have sensitive tips which contain numerous
corpuscles of Herbst. This enables the birds to locate buried prey items, which they typically seek with restless running and probing.
Taxonomy
The genus ''Calidris'' was introduced in 1804 by the German naturalist
Blasius Merrem with the
red knot as the
type species
In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...
.
The genus name is from
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...
''kalidris'' or ''skalidris'', a term used by
Aristotle
Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...
for some grey-coloured waterside birds.
The genus contain 24 species:
*
Great knot, ''Calidris tenuirostris''
*
Red knot, ''Calidris canutus''
*
Surfbird, ''Calidris virgata''
*
Ruff Ruff may refer to:
Places
*Ruff, Virginia, United States, an unincorporated community
*Ruff, Washington, United States, an unincorporated community
Other uses
*Ruff (bird) (''Calidris pugnax'' or ''Philomachus pugnax''), a bird in the wader famil ...
, ''Calidris pugnax''
*
Broad-billed sandpiper, ''Calidris falcinellus''
*
Sharp-tailed sandpiper, ''Calidris acuminata''
*
Stilt sandpiper, ''Calidris himantopus''
*
Curlew sandpiper, ''Calidris ferruginea''
*
Temminck's stint, ''Calidris temminckii''
*
Long-toed stint
The long-toed stint (''Calidris subminuta'') is a small wader. The genus name is from Ancient Greek ''kalidris'' or ''skalidris'', a term used by Aristotle for some grey-coloured waterside birds. The specific ''subminuta'' is from Latin ''sub'', ...
, ''Calidris subminuta''
*
Spoon-billed sandpiper, ''Calidris pygmaea''
*
Red-necked stint, ''Calidris ruficollis''
*
Sanderling, ''Calidris alba''
*
Dunlin, ''Calidris alpina''
*
Rock sandpiper, ''Calidris ptilocnemis''
*
Purple sandpiper, ''Calidris maritima''
*
Baird's sandpiper
Baird's sandpiper (''Calidris bairdii'') is a small shorebird. It is among those calidrids which were formerly included in the genus ''Erolia'', which was wiktionary:subsume, subsumed into the genus ''Calidris'' in 1973. The genus name is from An ...
, ''Calidris bairdii''
*
Little stint
The little stint (''Calidris minuta'' or ''Erolia minuta'') is a very small wader. It breeds in arctic Europe and Asia, and is a long-distance migrant, wintering south to Africa and south Asia. It occasionally is a vagrant to North America an ...
, ''Calidris minuta''
*
Least sandpiper, ''Calidris minutilla''
*
White-rumped sandpiper, ''Calidris fuscicollis''
*
Buff-breasted sandpiper, ''Calidris subruficollis''
*
Pectoral sandpiper, ''Calidris melanotos''
*
Semipalmated sandpiper
The semipalmated sandpiper (''Calidris pusilla'') is a very small shorebird. The genus name is from Ancient Greek ''kalidris'' or ''skalidris'', a term used by Aristotle for some grey-coloured waterside birds. The specific ''pusilla'' is Latin f ...
, ''Calidris pusilla''
*
Western sandpiper, ''Calidris mauri''
References
{{Authority control
Sandpipers
Bird genera