Description The Sanderling is a medium-sized shorebird about 6.5-8 inches long with a wingspan from 17-35 inches and weighing about 40-100 grams. The adult has a pale gray head and upperparts, and a faint partial gray breast band. It has white underparts, and indistinct white super cilium and a dark eve line. The breeding adult has a reddish head, back, and breast with black spots. The wings are a light pale gray wings and the belly white. The juvenile has checkered upperparts, black patch in front of folded wing, and faint partial gray breast band. It also has white underparts, and a face pattern bolder than adults.

Lifecycle Sanderlings breed on the Articc tundra around May or June. The female will lay 3-4 dullish green egg with sirregular light and dark brown spots in a shallow scrape in the ground. Both parents incubate the eggs for 24-31 days and take care of young who leave the nest the day after hatching. Chicks fledge at 17 days old.

Habitat In the winter Sanderlings can be found on nearly all temperate and tropical sandy beaches throughout the world. During the breeding season they are found on the islands and coastal tundra of the Arctic.

Diet The Sanderling wanders at the edge of the surf zone, running up and down the beach avoiding waves while searching the sand for food with its beak. They also find food by running with the receding wave and catching leftover scraps of small aquatic invertebrates like marine worms, mollusks, carrion, small razor clams, and small crabs. Thy also feed on insects, spiders, seeds, and buds on the ground in the summer.

Communication The female makes a short wick, wick noise and the male makes a froglike noise in flight on breeding grounds. They also make a twittering and a harsh kree noise in flocks when migrating.