Bird

Dunlin

Calidris alpina

A winter visitor to North Carolina, found in all 100 counties and 10 habitats.

Here: Winter and on migration
Nesting: Not known to nest here
Range: All 100 counties
Habitats: 10

Male Dunlin, whole bird — **Male**. (c) Karim Haddad, some rights reserved (CC BY). CC BY 4.0. iNaturalist photo 541416294. Source-provided large resize; no crop or image edits.

At a glance

Group: Birds
Here: Winter and on migration
Nesting: Not known to nest here
Range: All 100 counties
Habitats: 10
Habitat models: Winter

Where it lives

The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.

Habitats in North Carolina 10

Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.

1 of 10

WinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Large Natural LakeshoreRegional / representative. Shown: Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, Georgia; representative pond ecosystem, a neighboring state.Georgia pond and emergent wetland, Robert 'Bob' Hynes, 1997. Public domain. Source record.

WinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Streamhead Seepage Swamp - Pocosin - and Baygall; Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Tidal Wooded SwampNamed place / source context. Great Dismal Swamp, North Carolina, as titled by Museum of Fine Arts Boston; nineteenth-century artistic interpretationView, Dismal Swamp, North Carolina, Regis Francois Gignoux, 1850. Public domain. Source record.

Coastal dunes and beaches

Open sand of beaches, dunes and the hollows between them.

WinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Northern Sandy Beach; Unconsolidated Shore (Beach/Dune); Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Dune and Maritime Grassland; Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain Interdunal Wetland

Depression ponds and limesinks

Shallow ponds in Coastal Plain depressions, such as limesinks and the ponds in some Carolina bays, that rise and fall with the seasons.

WinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Herbaceous Wetland; Atlantic Coastal Plain Depression Pondshore

Disturbed and introduced wetlands

Wet ground taken over by weedy or introduced plants after disturbance, such as common reed, Chinese tallow or tamarisk stands; the upland counterpart is roadsides, fields and disturbed ground.

Winter

Freshwater tidal marshes

Marshes along tidal rivers where the water is fresh but rises and falls with the tide.

WinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh

Pocosins and bay forests

Dense evergreen shrub wetlands and bay forests on wet, acid peat of the Coastal Plain.

WinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Streamhead Seepage Swamp - Pocosin - and Baygall

Salt and brackish marshes

Coastal marshes flooded by salty or brackish tides.

WinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh

Seeps and springs

Places where groundwater keeps the soil or rock wet, such as seepage slopes and spring runs.

WinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Streamhead Seepage Swamp - Pocosin - and Baygall

WinterOnly within 120 m of water.Cultivated CroplandLyell Carr, Black Mountain: a pasture and hayfield with a log barn, rail fence and grazing cow below the Black Mountains. Black Mountain, North Carolina (Lyell E. Carr)*Black Mountainlabel QS:Len,"Black Mountain"*, Lyell Carr, c. 1890-1912. Public domain. Source record.

Other habitats in its models (29)

Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in North Carolina. Those recorded in North Carolina first, the rest by region.

Elsewhere in the South (23)

Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh Winter.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Sea Island Beach Winter.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Beach Winter.
Central and Upper Texas Coast Dune and Coastal Grassland Winter.
East Gulf Coastal Plain Dune and Coastal Grassland Winter.
East Gulf Coastal Plain Savanna and Wet Prairie Winter.
Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Winter.
Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
Florida Panhandle Beach Vegetation Winter.
Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Winter.
Mississippi River Bottomland Depression Winter.
Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
South Florida Everglades Sawgrass Marsh Winter.
South Florida Freshwater Slough and Gator Hole Winter.
South Florida Shell Hash Beach Winter.
South Florida Wet Marl Prairie Winter.
Southeast Florida Beach Winter.
Southern Coastal Plain Herbaceous Seepage Bog Winter.
Southwest Florida Beach Winter.
Southwest Florida Dune and Coastal Grassland Winter.
Texas Coastal Bend Beach Winter.
Texas Saline Coastal Prairie Winter.
Upper Texas Coast Beach Winter.

Northeast (2)

Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Fresh and Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Winter.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Salt Marsh Winter.

Land cover and other classes (4)

East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Winter.
Texas-Louisiana Coastal Prairie Slough Winter.
Unconsolidated Shore Winter.
Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Winter.

All habitats

Seasons in North Carolina

Migratory: does not nest here, in 86 of 100 counties.
Winter: does not nest here, in 28 of 100 counties.

Also found in its main habitats

Its main habitats in North Carolina, by how much of its habitat model each one is, with the birds most characteristic of each and the plants that grow wild there. Shared habitat, not food.