Broad-billed Sandpiper

The broad-billed sandpiper is a small, quiet wader with a long bill that curves slightly down at the tip. It feels easy to overlook, but on muddy shores and shallow marshy edges its calm, careful way of moving stands out.

It is usually solitary or at least unobtrusive. It walks in small, slow steps and dips its bill into soft mud as it feeds, and outside the breeding season it may gather into large flocks.

It favours wet bogs, muddy riverbanks, lagoon edges, and other soft, waterlogged places. Its food is made up mostly of small molluscs, insects, and their larvae, and it leaves northern breeding areas for wintering grounds in Africa, Asia, and Australia.