Curlew Sandpiper

The curlew sandpiper is a slender, long-billed Arctic breeder that reaches New Zealand in small numbers each summer. A slender sandpiper with long thin black legs, a long thin decurved bill and a white rump. Breeding adults are dark red; non-breeding birds are plain light grey-brown above and mostly white below. Dunlin, western sandpiper and stilt sandpiper are similar.

It arrives in September and October and leaves in April or early May, using harbours and estuaries from Parengarenga to Awarua Bay and rarely straying from mudflats. Manukau Harbour and Lake Ellesmere are the strongholds; fewer than 40 birds have reached New Zealand each summer since 2000. It feeds on polychaete worms, molluscs and small crustaceans such as amphipods and small crabs.

The New Zealand classification is Vagrant, although it is a regular summer visitor in small numbers. Manukau Harbour and Lake Ellesmere are the most reliable places to look in summer.