Bird

Least Sandpiper

Calidris minutilla

A winter visitor to North Carolina, found in all 100 counties and 12 habitats.

Here: Winter and on migration
Nesting: Not known to nest here
Range: All 100 counties
Habitats: 12

Adult Least Sandpiper, whole bird — **Adult**. (c) Ken Clark, some rights reserved (CC BY). CC BY. iNaturalist photo 378807780. iNaturalist large derivative; no local crop or retouch.

At a glance

Group: Birds
Here: Winter and on migration
Nesting: Not known to nest here
Range: All 100 counties
Habitats: 12
Habitat models: Winter

Where it lives

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

Habitats in North Carolina 12

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

1 of 12

WinterOpen Water (Fresh); Atlantic 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; Gulf and Atlantic Coastal Plain Swamp Systems; Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Tidal Wooded Swamp; Atlantic Coastal Plain Nonriverine Swamp and Wet Hardwood Forest - Taxodium/Nyssa ModifierNamed 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.

WinterUnconsolidated Shore (Beach/Dune); Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain Interdunal Wetland

Coastal tidal marshes (salinity not stated)

Tidal marshes of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts where the source does not say whether the water is fresh, brackish or salt. A stated salinity files the marsh under freshwater tidal marshes or salt and brackish marshes instead.

Winter

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

Hardwood and oak flatwoods

Flat, poorly drained uplands and terraces with oaks, sweetgum and sometimes loblolly pine, wet in winter and dry in summer, but neither a floodplain nor a swamp.

WinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Nonriverine Swamp and Wet Hardwood Forest - Oak Dominated Modifier

Pocosins and bay forests

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

WinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Peatland Pocosin; Atlantic 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

Sounds, bays and tidal flats

Salt and brackish open water of sounds, bays and estuaries, with the mud and sand flats and seagrass beds that tides cover and uncover; the vegetated marsh is salt and brackish marshes.

WinterOpen Water (Brackish/Salt)

Other habitats in its models (38)

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 (27)

Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh Winter.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Wooded Swamp Winter.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Sea Island Beach Winter.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Beach Winter.
Central Florida Herbaceous Pondshore Winter.
East Gulf Coastal Plain Savanna and Wet Prairie Winter.
East Gulf Coastal Plain Tidal Wooded Swamp Winter.
Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Winter.
Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Winter.
Lower Mississippi River Flatwoods Winter, only within 60 m of water.
Mississippi River Bottomland Depression Winter.
Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
South Florida Bayhead Swamp Winter.
South Florida Everglades Sawgrass Marsh Winter.
South Florida Freshwater Slough and Gator Hole Winter.
South Florida Mangrove Swamp Winter.
South Florida Wet Marl Prairie Winter.
Southeast Florida Beach Winter.
Southern Coastal Plain Herbaceous Seepage Bog Winter.
Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp Winter.
Southern Coastal Plain Seepage Swamp and Baygall Winter.
Southwest Florida Beach Winter.
West Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest Winter.
West Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Large River Swamp Winter.
West Gulf Coastal Plain Nepheline Syenite Glade Winter, only within 60 m of water.
West Gulf Coastal Plain Seepage Swamp and Baygall 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 (9)

East Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest - Herbaceous Modifier Winter.
East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Winter.
Mississippi River Floodplain and Riparian Forest Winter.
Open Water (Aquaculture) Winter.
Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Nupea Modifier Winter.
Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Pine Modifier Winter.
Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Taxodium Modifier Winter.
Unconsolidated Shore Winter.
Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Winter.

All habitats

Seasons in North Carolina

Migratory: does not nest here, in 74 of 100 counties.
Winter: does not nest here, in 57 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.