Appearance:

A small, elegant diving duck with highly variable looks depending on sex and time of year. Several moults with transitional plumages. Males with long, pointed tail and pink banded bill in most plumages. Females with grey bill. In all plumages note: small head, steep forehead and short bill with high base. Wings always all dark (also underside). Only diving duck with dark wings and light body. Flies with wings hardly raised above horizontal plane on upstroke.

Sound:

Very vocal and distinct. Male: a pleasant resonant melodic "ahh-aaooee" in a yodeling, breaking triad. Starting with an accented first note (ahh), then gliding from first through second and third note (-aaoooeee). Far carrying. Female: calls often, but less musical and distinct than male.

Male song:

Distribution:

Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

Sounds:Recorded by Ian Cruickshank,http://www.xeno-canto.org ,CC license

Appearance:

Large, stocky Calidris. Easily identified when direct size-comparison with congeners possible. Elongated body shape and short legs. Bill robust, short and straight. Summer plumage: Upperparts speckled in brown and grey, underparts warm rufous brown, like Curlew Sandpiper. Legs dark. Winter- and juvenile plumage: Pale grey upperparts (scaly pattern in juveniles), and white belly. Legs greenish in both juveniles and winter-plumaged adults. Note pale grey rump and uniformly grey tail in flight. Wing-bars less prominent than in Sanderling.

Sound:

Most commonly heard migratory call, a short "kut" or "knot". Sometimes given in stuttering series. Song an undulating, nasal mewing "poooor-mee", or "po-hor-mee".

Contact call, song:

Distribution:

Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

CC-sounds:Stein Ø. Nilsen, XC317787. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/317787.