Scientific name: Calidris maritima (Brunnich, 1764)
Bird group: Waders
Field characters. 20 cm. A compact wader; bill rather long with yellow base; legs short, yellow. Head, breast and upperparts black-brown with purplish gloss on back; eye-ring, throat and belly white. In flight unmistakable by general dark appearance, white underwing contrasting with dark flanks and breast. In winter paler, more sooty-olive, with white underparts below chest, but still much darker than other sandpipers. Juvenile resembles adult in summer. More confident swimmer than congeners; will alight on water freely. Associates commonly with Turnstones.
Voice. Commonest call is "weet-wit" in flight; particularly in spring also a swallow-like twitter.
Distribution. Locally a scarce breeding bird; a fairly rare winter visitor and passage migrant.
Habitat. Outside breeding season restricted to rocky coasts and weedy offshore islets; breeds on rocky shores and stony upland in tundra.
Food. Predominantly invertebrates along shore; pecks prey from between rocks, while dodging waves by agile "leaping". During breeding-season, also some leaves, buds and berries.