The Story
This Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularius) stood on a flat gray ledge at the wastewater treatment ponds of Santa Rosa de Copán, Honduras. It breeds near fresh water across most of Canada and the United States and migrates to the southern United States, the Caribbean and South America. As it forages it keeps nodding and teetering, and its tail bobs as it walks. Its spots are most prominent around the breeding season. It forages on the ground or in water, picking up food by sight, and sometimes catches insects in flight. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I used a Canon R5 with the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender for this one, at 1/125 sec, f/16, ISO 3200, +0.5 EV. The treatment ponds are one of the COAS Copán club’s birding routes.
©2022 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularius) belongs to the family Scolopacidae (Sandpipers and Allies) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2024), with the population trend listed as stable. Source: IUCN Red List
