Playero zarapitín/Curlew Sandpiper/Calidris ferruginea

Nombre en español: Playero zarapitín

Nombre en inglés: Curlew Sandpiper

Nombre científico: Calidris ferruginea

Categorías: Casi amenazado (NT) / Migratoria Boreal / Hipotéticas

Canto: Marcel Gil Velasco

El correlimos zarapitín (Calidris ferruginea) es una pequeña ave limícola del género Calidris que habita en la tundra siberiana. Es una especie migratoria, que hiberna principalmente en África, pero también en el sur y el sudeste de Asia y Australasia. Muy ocasionalmente ha sido avistado en Norteamérica.

Descripción

Estas aves son pequeños limícolas, ligeramente más grandes que el correlimos común (Calidris alpina), con una longitud media de 19,5-21 cm, con cuello y patas más largas, y la parte posterior blanca. En la estación de cría, los adultos muestran un plumaje jaspeado de gris oscuro en el dorso, y vientre de color rojo óxido (indicado en su nombre latino). En invierno, el plumaje es más pálido, y el vientre es blanco. Los jóvenes tienen un plumaje pardo y gris, vientre blanco y pecho de color ocre anaranjado.

Comportamiento

Durante la época de apareamiento, el macho corteja a la hembra mediante una exhibición aérea. La puesta consiste en una media de tres o cuatro huevos, que son depositados sobre el suelo desnudo de la tundra.Se trata de una especie muy gregaria, que forma bandadas con otras especies de correlimos, especialmente el correlimos común (Calidris alpina). A pesar de que el hábitat del correlimos zarapitín generalmente es la tundra siberiana, esta especie es vista con frecuencia en Europa Occidental durante sus migraciones.Se alimenta en las riberas húmedas y marismas de la costa, buscando su alimento mediante la vista, principalmente insectos, moluscos y otros pequeños invertebrados.La población del correlimos zarapitín se encuentra asociada a la población de lemmings. En años de escasez de lemmings, depredadores como los págalos grandes (Catharacta skua) y los búhos nivales (Bubo scandiacus) se alimentan de correlimos.En ocasiones, el correlimos zarapitín se reproduce con el correlimos acuminado (Calidris acuminata) y el correlimos pectoral (Calidris melanotos), produciendo los híbridos llamados correlimos de Cooper (Calidris cooperi) y correlimos de Cox (Calidris paramelanotos), respectivamente.El correlimos zarapitín es una de las especies a las que se aplica el Acuerdo de Conservación de las Aves Acuáticas de África-Eurasia.

Taxonomía

Es una especie muy inusual, y ha sido propuesta como especie del género Erolia, pero la secuencia de ADN resulta insuficiente para resolver sus relaciones genéticas.

Curlew sandpiper

The curlew sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea) is a small wader that breeds on the tundra of Arctic Siberia.It is strongly migratory, wintering mainly in Africa, but also in south and southeast Asia and in Australia and New Zealand. It is a vagrant to North America.

Taxonomy

The curlew sandpiper was formally described in 1763 by the Danish author Erik Pontoppidan under the binomial nameTringa ferrugineus. It is now placed with 23 other sandpipers in the genus Calidris that was introduced in 1804 by the German naturalist Blasius Merrem. The genus name is from Ancient Greekkalidris or skalidris, a term used by Aristotle for some grey-coloured waterside birds. The specific ferruginea is from Latin ferrugo, ferruginis, «iron rust» referring to its colour in breeding plumage. The curlew sandpiper is treated as monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. Within the genus Calidris the curlew sandpiper is most closely related to the stilt sandpiper (Calidris himantopus). This species occasionally hybridizes with the sharp-tailed sandpiper and the pectoral sandpiper, producing the presumed «species» called «Cooper’s sandpiper» («Calidris» × cooperi) and «Cox’s sandpiper» («Calidris» × paramelanotos), respectively.

Description

These birds are small waders, similar to dunlins, but differ in having a longer down-curved beak, longer neck and legs and a white rump. They have a length of 18–23 cm (7.1–9.1 in), weight of 44-117 g^[11] and wingspan of 38–41 cm (15–16 in). The breeding adult has patterned dark grey upperparts and brick-red underparts. In winter, this bird is pale grey above and white below, and shows an obvious white supercilium. Juveniles have a grey and brown back, a white belly and a peach-coloured breast.

Distribution and habitat

The curlew sandpiper breeds in the Siberian Arctic from the Yamal Peninsula to the Kolyuchin Bay.

Behaviour

This wader is highly gregarious, and will form flocks with other calidrid waders, particularly dunlin. Despite its easterly breeding range, this species is regular on passage in western Europe, presumably because of southwesterly migration route.

Breeding

The breeding grounds are occupied from June till late August.^[13] The male curlew sandpiper performs an aerial display during courtship. The nesting site is at the edge of a marsh or pool, or on dry patches of tundra. The average clutch size is 3.8 eggs which are laid at daily intervals. The eggs are incubated by the female and hatch after 19–20 days. The chicks are cared for by the female for 14–16 days. The reproductive success of this species appears to be dependent on the population of lemmings (West Siberian lemmings (Lemmus sibiricus), East Siberian lemmings (Lemmus paulus) and the Arctic lemming (Dicrostonyx torquatus). In poor lemming years, predatory species such as the Arctic fox (Alopes lagopus) will take Arctic-breeding waders instead.

Food and feeding

It forages in soft mud on marshes and the coast, mainly picking up food by sight. It mostly eats insects and other small invertebrates.

Status

Counts of the curlew sandpiper in South Africa, specifically at Langebaan Lagoon where they are most numerous, indicate a 40% decline in numbers between 1975 and 2009. A similar trend has been noted in Australia and may be linked to effects of global warming at the breeding grounds. It has an extremely large range but although the population is large it is very hard to determine and appears to be decreasing. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has judged the species to be «Near-threatened».^[1] The curlew sandpiper is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.