Dunlin
Sign in to saveThe dunlin (Calidris alpina) is a small wader in the genus Calidris. The English name is a dialect form of "dunling", first recorded in 1531–1532. It derives from dun, "dull brown", with the suffix -ling, meaning a person or thing with the given quality.
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The dunlin is a small wading bird found across the Northern Hemisphere, belonging to the sandpiper family. Its name, first recorded in the 1500s, comes from the Old English word "dun" meaning dull brown, reflecting the bird's coloring.
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Wikidata facts
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- P105
- species
- P141
- Near Threatened
Article
9 sectionsContents
- Taxonomy
- Description
- Distribution and habitat
- Behaviour
- Breeding
- Status
- Gallery
- References
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The dunlin (Calidris alpina) is a small wader in the genus Calidris. The English name is a dialect form of "dunling", first recorded in 1531–1532. It derives from dun, "dull brown", with the suffix -ling, meaning a person or thing with the given quality.
It is a circumpolar breeder in Arctic or subarctic regions. Birds that breed in western Europe are short-distance migrants largely staying on western and southern European and northwest African coasts; those breeding in far northern Europe and Asia are long-distance migrants, wintering south to Africa, southeast and west Asia. Birds that breed in Alaska and the Canadian Arctic migrate short distances to the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of North America, although those nesting in northern Alaska overwinter in Asia.