From Opus

Winter plumage
Photo by jparks
Big Island, Hawaii, February 2010

Alternative name: Kioea¹

Numenius tahitiensis

[edit] Identification

43cm

• Buff spotted brown upper parts
• Light belly
• Rust or buff tail
• Buff-orange rump
• Long, decurved bill
• Bristled feathers at base of legs

Photo by ClimbItaLogiCal
Midway Atoll, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, July 2011

[edit] Similar Species

Very similar in size and shape to Whimbrel but pale unbarred rump and voice are distinctive.

[edit] Distribution

Breeds on the lower Yukon River and the Seward Peninsula in western Alaska.

Winters in Micronesia, Fiji, Tonga, Hawaii, American Samoa, and French Polynesia.

Accidental vagrant along the pacific coast of Canada and the United States, and in Japan, New Zealand, and the Philippines.

[edit] Taxonomy

This is a monotypic species^[2].

[edit] Habitat

Breeds in coastal tundra. Feeds on coastal short grassland/turf.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Diet

The diet includes insects, flowers and berries, and other birds' eggs.

[edit] Breeding

They nest in ground depressions, lined with tundra moss. The clutch of 4 greenish brown spotted eggs are incubated for 25 days; both parents caring for the young.

The adults migrate southwards when the chicks are about 5 weeks old, the chicks leaving later.

[edit] References

1. Not to be confused with Kioea, Chaetoptila angustipluma.
2. Clements, JF. 2010. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2010. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/Clements%206.5.xls/view
3. Wikipedia

• List of references

[edit] External Links

• View more images of this species on Orientalbirdimages