First record of Least Sandpiper Calidris minutilla for Buenos Aires province and review of its status in Argentina

MARTINEZ-CURCI N; PRETELLI M; CAVALLI M; ISACCH JP; LOREDO MA

Wader Study

Wader Study

Año: 2018 vol. 125

0260-3799

Least Sandpiper Calidris minutilla is a Nearctic migrant shorebird. The southern parts of its main non-breeding areas are recorded as extending to Peru on the Pacific coast and to central Brazil on the Atlantic coast. The species also occurs to a lesser extent in southern South America. Tere are only two extralimital records for Argentina with photographic evidence: one came from La Pampa province, where a single bird was seen in February 2007, and one from Córdoba province of a bird observed in November 2015. On December 2017 a single Least Sandpiper was observed in Medaland Ranch, Buenos Aires, Argentina. The three records of Least Sandpipers in Argentina over the last ten years indicate that the species is likely to be of regular but rare occurrence in the country. Since Least Sandpipers frequently associate with similar species such as White-rumped and Baird?s Calidris bairdii Sandpipers, they probably go unnoticed in mixed flocks so their abundance and frequency of occurrence might be underestimated. The current increase in the number of birdwatchers interested in shorebirds may contribute to a better understanding of the abundance and distribution of Least Sandpipers in Argentina.