Sanderling eats frozen shrimp

Ingo Waschkies was at Amrum, one of the North Frisian Islands on the German North Sea, just before Christmas last year. He brought back a photograph of a Sanderling (Calidris alba) catching a shrimp. The temperature then was around -10º C and the bird had the frozen shrimp for lunch.

The Sanderling breeds in Siberia, Alaska, Canada and North Greenland, feeding on insects and crustaceans. It winters on the Indian subcontenent, Sri Lanka, South Japan, South China, the Malay Peninsular, down to Borneo, Java, the Philippines, Wallacea and Australia.

Sanderling is listed as an uncommon winter visitor in Singapore. Here, it frequents “beaches rather than mudflats, so you won’t see them very often in typical wader haunts like Sungei Buloh,” writes Ingo.

Image by Ingo Waschkies.

This post is a cooperative effort between NaturePixels.org and BESG to bring the study of bird behaviour through photography to a wider audience.