Wednesday, 15 January 2014

WADER 50/60 - Temminck's Stint

Temmick's Stint

MNS Selangor Wader Census team was there in show me this uncommon stint, winterering visitor to Malim Nawar Perak. Amongst it  are  Long-toed and Little Stints. It was quite a distance shot out 100m or more in a dried out pond.  My EF400mm cannot reach it for a better shot but the expert says so

It usually keeps to the water line and sandy patches and not to the grassy area unlike the others. It prefers freshwater marshes  wetland & shallow estuaries rather than seashore mudflats when visiting.

This stint's breeding habitat is bogs and marshes in the taiga of Arctic northern Europe and Asia.  It has a distinctive hovering display flight. Temminck's Stint is strongly migratory, wintering at freshwater sites in tropical Africa, the Indian Subcontinent and parts of Southeast Asia.
These birds forage in soft mud sandy with some vegetation, mainly picking up food by sight. They have a distinctive mouse-like feeding behaviour, creeping steadily along the edges of pools. They mostly eat insects and other small invertebrates. They not as gregarious as other Calidris waders, and rarely form large flocks.

These birds are very small waders, at 13.5–15 cm length similar in size to Little Stint, Calidris/Erolia minuta. They are shorter legged and longer winged than Little Stint. The legs are yellow, and the outer tail feathers white, in contrast to Little Stint's dark legs and grey outer tail feathers.
This is a rather drab wader, with mainly plain brown upperpart and head, and underpart white apart from a darker breast. The breeding adult has some brighter rufous mantle feathers to relieve the generally still undistinguished appearance. In winter plumage, the general appearance recalls a tiny version of Common Sandpiper. The call is a loud trill.

    Need to get the Kowa Scope 884  liao

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