Pectoral Sandpiper Photos

Photography by Terry Sohl

My Favorite: Pectoral Sandpipers are one of the more common shorebirds that migrates through the state, and thankfully, one that's easy to identify compared to some of the other sandpipers! They are bigger in size than the "peeps", have yellow legs, but are clearly stockier and different than the Yellowleg species. The bill has a unique yellow base (different in shape too than some other shorebirds that might be confused with it), and they have that distinctive chest markings make it easy to identify.

Thankfully they're also usually not all that shy! Which means I do have quite a few photos of the species. My favorite photo is an in-your-face kind of a shot, taken from a blind at Weisensee Slough in western Minnehaha County of South Dakota, in April of 2017.

Pectoral Sandpiper - Calidris melanotos


Pectoral Sandpiper 1	Pectoral Sandpiper 2	Pectoral Sandpiper 3	Pectoral Sandpiper 4
May 4th, 2014	August 30th, 2009	August 1st, 2004	May 4th, 2014
Western Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Lake Thompson, South Dakota	Lake Thompson, South Dakota	Western Minnehaha County, South Dakota
Profile of bird wading in waist deep water on a sunny morning	Sandpiper foraging in very shallow water	Pectoral Sandpiper in wetland habitat	Sandpiper with wet head feathers from foraging in shallow water

Pectoral Sandpiper 5	Pectoral Sandpiper 6	Pectoral Sandpiper 7	Pectoral Sandpiper 8
May 9th, 2011	May 9th, 2011	August 13th, 2011	May 6th, 2017
Near Worthing, South Dakota	Near Worthing, South Dakota	Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Lincoln County, South Dakota
Side view of a bird standing in shallow water	Pectoral Sandpiper with muddy bill from foraging	Sandpiper on gravelly shoreline with duckweed on bill and feet	Pectoral Sandpiper standing on the shoreline in the sun

Pectoral Sandpiper 9	Pectoral Sandpiper 10	Pectoral Sandpiper 11	Pectoral Sandpiper 12
April 23rd, 2020	April 23rd, 2020	April 23rd, 2020	April 19th, 2020
Lake County, South Dakota	Lake County, South Dakota	Lake County, South Dakota	Minnehaha County, South Dakota
Pair of sandpipers in wetland habitat	Single sandpiper in wetland habitat	Pectoral Sandpiper wading in shallow water habitat	Profile of a bird standing in the sun in wetland

Pectoral Sandpiper 13	Pectoral Sandpiper 14	Pectoral Sandpiper 15	Pectoral Sandpiper 16
May 22nd, 2014	April 23rd, 2020	April 23rd, 2020	April 23rd, 2020
Near Eagle River, Alaska	Western Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Western Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Western Minnehaha County, South Dakota
Over-the-shoulder look on rocky shoreline	Closeup view of sandpiper facing the camera	Wading bird in shallow water habitat	Wading bird in shallow water habitat

Pectoral Sandpiper 17	Pectoral Sandpiper 18	Pectoral Sandpiper 19	Pectoral Sandpiper 20
April 23rd, 2020	August 9th, 2020	August 9th, 2020	August 9th, 2020
Western Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Western Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Western Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Western Minnehaha County, South Dakota
Sandpiper facing the camera	Foraging bird probing in the wetland muck	Sandpiper with reflection, foraging in shallow water	Side view of bird in warm morning sunlight