Diet
Baird's sandpiper eats larvae, beetles, grasshoppers, and spiders. It feeds mostly on land, but it sometimes feeds in shallow water.
Life Cycle
The male builds a shallow scrape lined with lichen, grass, and leaves
among the rocks or in a clump of vegetation. The female Baird's sandpiper lays 4
spotted brown eggs.
Both parents incubate the eggs for 21-22 days. The chicks are
precocial and leave the nest and feed themselves shortly after hatching.
The male and female both care for the chicks, but the female usually leaves them to begin her migration. The male stays with them until they fledge at 16-21 days old.
Fun Fact
Baird's sandpiper's is named for Spencer Fullerton Baird who was a
professor of natural sciences
and the
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. He also headed the Bureau of Fisheries which later became the National Marine Fisheries Service.
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Baird's sandpiper breeds in the arctic regions of Alaska and Canada. It migrates through the Great Plains and winters in
South America.
During migration, it often gathers in flocks in the Great Plains and then flies non-stop, sometimes traveling as far as 4,000 miles, to South America. In the fall, small numbers of Baird's sandpipers can be found on the Atlantic Coast, including in New Hampshire. Baird's sandpiper is also found in the arctic regions of Greenland and Siberia.
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