Calidris

Calidris is a genus of Arctic-breeding, strongly migratory wading birds in the family Scolopacidae. These birds form huge mixed flocks on coasts and estuaries in winter. Migratory shorebirds are shown to have declined in reproductive traits because of temporal changes of their breeding seasons.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> They are the typical "sandpipers", small to medium-sized, long-winged and relatively short-billed.

Their bills have sensitive tips which contain numerous corpuscles of Herbst. This enables the birds to locate buried prey items, which they typically seek with restless running and probing.<ref name=Nebel>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Taxonomy

The genus Calidris was introduced in 1804 by the German naturalist Blasius Merrem with the red knot as the type species.<ref>Template:Cite journal Published anonymously.</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The genus name is from Ancient Greek kalidris or skalidris, a term used by Aristotle for some grey-coloured waterside birds.<ref name=job>Template:Cite book</ref>

Many of the species have been treated under other generic names at various times in the past, but these treatments leave Calidris polyphyletic;<ref name="Thomas">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Gibson">Template:Cite journal</ref> synonyms are in brackets in the list below.

The genus contain 24 species:<ref name=ioc>Template:Cite web</ref>

• Great knot Calidris tenuirostris
• Red knot Calidris canutus
• Surfbird Calidris virgata (syn. Aphriza virgata)
• Ruff Calidris pugnax (syn. Philomachus pugnax)
• Broad-billed sandpiper Calidris falcinellus (syn. Limicola falcinellus)
• Sharp-tailed sandpiper Calidris acuminata
• Stilt sandpiper Calidris himantopus (syn. Micropalama himantopus)
• Curlew sandpiper Calidris ferruginea (syn. Erolia ferruginea)
• Temminck's stint Calidris temminckii
• Long-toed stint Calidris subminuta
• Spoon-billed sandpiper Calidris pygmaea (syn. Eurynorhynchus pygmaeus)
• Red-necked stint Calidris ruficollis
• Sanderling Calidris alba (syn. Crocethia alba)
• Dunlin Calidris alpina
• Rock sandpiper Calidris ptilocnemis
• Purple sandpiper Calidris maritima
• Baird's sandpiper Calidris bairdii
• Little stint Calidris minuta
• Least sandpiper Calidris minutilla
• White-rumped sandpiper Calidris fuscicollis
• Buff-breasted sandpiper Calidris subruficollis (syn. Tryngites subruficollis)
• Pectoral sandpiper Calidris melanotos
• Semipalmated sandpiper Calidris pusilla (syn. Ereunetes pusillus)
• Western sandpiper Calidris mauri

The following species-level cladogram is based on a molecular phylogenetic study by David Černý and Rossy Natale that was published in 2022. Some of the nodes are only weakly supported by the sequence data.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Template:Clade