IDENTIFICATION
19-22 cm.
Upperparts brown olive, including rump and tail; white underparts, with
streaked breast; wings with a white band; dark bill and greenish legs.
SIMILAR
SPECIES
Recalls a
Green Sandpiper, which is bigger, with a white rump and lacks a white line on
wing.
SEXING
Plumage of
both sexes alike.
AGEING
3 types of
age can be recognized:
Juvenile
with feathers on upperparts, scapulars, and tertials with a narrow and rounded sub
terminal bar bordered by buff at the tip, without streaks; wing coverts very
heavily barred brown; central tail feathers without short bars or spots at
sides; with fresh flight feathers and always with one age; some birds with legs
tinged pink. 2nd year only if some juvenile feathers have been retained on
median wing coverts, tail, or flight feathers.
Adult with
feathers on upperparts with a dark streak; tertials streaked; wing coverts with
a dark subterminal bar, sometimes with several spaced dark bars; central tail
feathers with dark subterminal bar and short bars or spots at sides; flight
feathers with two ages and, if only one, with eroded feathers; with grey
greenish legs.
MOULT
Complete post
breeding moult, starting in breeding areas and finished in wintering quarters.
Partial post-juvenile moult but some birds can retain median wing coverts and
flight and tail feathers; usually starting in wintering quarters. Both types of
age have a pre-breeding moult, between February and May, including most of the
body feathers and some wing coverts; sometimes also the tail.
STATUS IN
ARAGON
This is a summer visitor breeding in rivers in mountainous areas, and widely distributed on passage in wet places throughout the Region.
