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Bird

Least Sandpiper

Calidris minutilla

Passes through Virginia on migration. Found in all 133 counties and cities, across 11 habitats.

Here
On migration
Nesting
Not known to nest here
Range
All 133 counties and cities
Habitats
11

At a glance

Group
Birds
Here
On migration
Nesting
Not known to nest here
Range
All 133 counties and cities
Habitats
11
Habitat models
Winter

Where it lives

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

Habitats in Virginia 11

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

1 of 11

Coastal dunes and beaches

Core Banks dunes, June 2013
WinterUnconsolidated Shore (Beach/Dune); Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain Interdunal WetlandDune grassland. Shown: Core Banks, Cape Lookout, North Carolina, a neighboring state.Core Banks dunes, June 2013, Jarek Tuszyński, June 2013. CC BY-SA 3.0. Source record.

Pocosins and bay forests

Dense low pocosin
WinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Peatland Pocosin; Atlantic Coastal Plain Streamhead Seepage Swamp - Pocosin - and BaygallDense low pocosin. Shown: Shaken Creek Preserve, Pender and Onslow Counties, North Carolina, a neighboring state.Dense low pocosin, Robert Thornhill, undated. CC BY 4.0. Source record.

Ponds, lakes and their shores

Yellow butterwort beside a moss-hung coastal pond
WinterOpen Water (Fresh); Atlantic Coastal Plain Large Natural LakeshoreRegional / representative. Shown: Southern coastal pond margins, Florida and Louisiana to North Carolina; state not identified, a neighboring state.Yellow butterwort beside a moss-hung coastal pond, Marian Ellis Rowan, 1901. Public domain. Source record.

Salt and brackish marshes

Fort Fisher brackish marsh and woodland edge
WinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Salt MarshBrackish marsh at a woodland edge. Shown: Fort Fisher, North Carolina, a neighboring state.Fort Fisher brackish marsh and woodland edge, ncwetlands.org, undated. CC0 1.0. Source record.

Swamps

View, Dismal Swamp, North Carolina
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 Northern Tidal Wooded Swamp; Atlantic Coastal Plain Nonriverine Swamp and Wet Hardwood Forest - Taxodium/Nyssa ModifierNamed place / source context. Shown: Great Dismal Swamp, North Carolina, as titled by Museum of Fine Arts Boston; nineteenth-century artistic interpretation, a neighboring state.View, Dismal Swamp, North Carolina, Regis Francois Gignoux, 1850. Public domain. Source record.

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 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 Northern Fresh and 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

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 Virginia.

  • Open Water (Aquaculture) Winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Beach Winter.
  • Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Winter.
  • Unconsolidated Shore Winter.
  • Southeast Florida Beach Winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Sea Island Beach Winter.
  • Southwest Florida Beach Winter.
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Nepheline Syenite Glade Winter, only within 60 m of water.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh Winter.
  • Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
  • Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Taxodium Modifier Winter.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Pine Modifier Winter.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Nupea Modifier Winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Herbaceous Wetland Winter.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Seepage Swamp and Baygall Winter.
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Seepage Swamp and Baygall Winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Tidal Wooded Swamp Winter.
  • South Florida Everglades Sawgrass Marsh Winter.
  • Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Winter.
  • Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Winter.
  • South Florida Mangrove Swamp Winter.
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Large River Swamp Winter.
  • South Florida Bayhead Swamp Winter.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp Winter.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Herbaceous Seepage Bog Winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Winter.
  • South Florida Wet Marl Prairie Winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Savanna and Wet Prairie Winter.
  • Central Florida Herbaceous Pondshore Winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Winter.
  • Mississippi River Bottomland Depression Winter.
  • South Florida Freshwater Slough and Gator Hole Winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest - Herbaceous Modifier Winter.
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest Winter.
  • Mississippi River Floodplain and Riparian Forest Winter.
  • Lower Mississippi River Flatwoods Winter, only within 60 m of water.

All habitats

Seasons in Virginia

  • Migratory: does not nest here, in all 133 counties and cities.

Also found in this habitat

Plants 165

Plants named in NatureServe descriptions of these habitats that grow in Virginia. Shared habitat, not food.

Wildlife 242

Other animals whose habitat models include the same habitats in Virginia. Not sighting records.

NatureServe Explorer, CC BY 4.0. USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.

Sources