View source for Grey-tailed tattler

{{Short description|Species of bird}}
{{Speciesbox
| name = Grey-tailed tattler
| image = Tringa brevipes2.jpg
| image_caption = Breeding plumage
| image2 = Tringa brevipes.jpg
| image2_caption = Non-breeding plumage
| status = NT
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| status_ref = <ref name="iucn status 12 November 2021">{{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International |date=2016 |title=''Tringa brevipes'' |volume=2016 |article-number=e.T22693289A93394897 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22693289A93394897.en |access-date=12 November 2021}}</ref>
| taxon = Tringa brevipes
| authority = ([[Louis Pierre Vieillot|Vieillot]], 1816)
| synonyms =
''Heteroscelus brevipes''<br/>
''Heterosceles brevipes''<br/>
''Heteractitis brevipes''
|synonyms_ref = <ref name=avibase>{{avibase|29256A389375B43E|Tringa brevipes}}</ref>
}}

The '''grey-tailed tattler''' ('''''Tringa brevipes'''''<ref name = banks>Banks, Richard C.; Cicero, Carla; Dunn, Jon L.; Kratter, Andrew W.; Rasmussen, Pamela C.; Remsen, J. V. Jr.; Rising, James D. & Stotz, Douglas F. (2006):  [http://www.aou.org/checklist/Suppl47.pdf Forty-seventh Supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list of North American Birds]. ''[[Auk (journal)|Auk]]'' '''123'''(3): 926–936. [[Digital Object Identifier|DOI]]: 10.1642/0004-8038(2006)123[926:FSTTAO]2.0.CO;2</ref><ref name=per>*Pereira, Sérgio Luiz & '''Baker''', Alan J. (2005): Multiple Gene Evidence for Parallel Evolution and Retention of Ancestral Morphological States in the Shanks (Charadriiformes: Scolopacidae). ''[[Condor (journal)|Condor]]'' '''107'''(3): 514–526. [[Digital Object Identifier|DOI]]: 10.1650/0010-5422(2005)107[0514:MGEFPE]2.0.CO;2</ref>), also known as the '''Siberian tattler''' or '''Polynesian tattler''',<ref name=avibase/> is a small [[shorebird]] in the [[genus]] ''[[Tringa]]''. The English name for the tattlers refers to their noisy call.<ref name=OED>{{Cite OED |Tattler }}</ref> The genus name ''Tringa'' is the [[Neo-Latin]] name given to the [[green sandpiper]] by [[Ulisse Aldrovandi|Aldrovandus]] in 1599 based on [[Ancient Greek]] ''trungas'', a thrush-sized, white-rumped, tail-bobbing wading bird mentioned by [[Aristotle]]. The specific ''brevipes'' is from [[Latin]] ''brevis'', "short", and ''pes'', "foot".<ref name=job>{{cite book | last= Jobling | first= James A | year= 2010| title= The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | url= https://archive.org/details/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling | publisher=Christopher Helm | location = London | isbn = 978-1-4081-2501-4 | pages= [https://archive.org/details/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling/page/n77 77], 390}}</ref>

This tattler breeds in northeast [[Siberia]]. After breeding, they migrate to an area from southeast [[Asia]] to [[Australia]].

== Description ==
The grey-tailed tattler is closely related to its [[North America]]n counterpart, the [[wandering tattler]] (''T. incana'') and is difficult to distinguish from that species. Both tattlers are unique among the species of ''Tringa'' for having unpatterned, greyish wings and back, and a scaly breast pattern extending more or less onto the belly in breeding plumage, in which both also have a rather prominent [[supercilium]].

These birds resemble [[common redshank]]s in shape and size. The upper parts, underwings, face and neck are grey, and the belly is white. They have short yellowish legs and a bill with a pale base and dark tip. There is a weak supercilium.

They are very similar to their American counterpart, and differentiation depends on details like the length of the nasal groove and scaling on the tarsus. The best distinction is the call; grey-tailed has a disyllabic whistle, and wandering a rippling trill.

[[Image:Grey-tailed Tattler95.ogg|thumbtime=5|left|thumb|A grey-tailed tattler feeding on the shoreline in Redcliffe, SE Queensland, Australia]]

== Behaviour ==
Its breeding habitat is stony riverbeds in northeast [[Siberia]]. It nests on the ground, but these birds will perch in trees.  They sometimes use old nests of other [[bird]]s as well.

Grey-tailed tattlers are strongly [[bird migration|migratory]] and winter on muddy and sandy coasts from southeast [[Asia]] to [[Australia]]. They are very rare vagrants to western North America and western [[Europe]]. These are not particularly gregarious birds and are seldom seen in large flocks except at roosts.

These birds forage on the ground or water, picking up food by sight. They eat insects, crustaceans and other [[invertebrate]]s.

{{Clear}}

== Conservation status ==

=== Australia ===
Grey-tailed tattlers are not listed as "threatened" on the Australian [[Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999]].

The grey-tailed tattler is listed as "threatened" on the Victorian [[Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act (1988)]]. Under this Act, an ''Action Statement'' for the recovery and future management of this species has not been prepared. On the 2007 advisory list of threatened vertebrate fauna in Victoria, the grey-tailed tattler is listed as [[critically endangered]].<ref name="DSE200">{{cite book | author = Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment | title = Advisory List of Threatened Vertebrate Fauna in Victoria – 2007 | publisher = Department of Sustainability and Environment | year = 2007 | location = East Melbourne, Victoria | page = 15 | isbn = 978-1-74208-039-0 }}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Tringa brevipes}}
{{Wikispecies|Tringa brevipes}}
* {{Xeno-canto species|Tringa|brevipes|Grey-tailed tattler}}

{{Scolopacidae|2}}
{{Taxonbar|from1=Q11848755|from2=Q1272062}}

[[Category:Tringa|grey-tailed tattler]]
[[Category:Shorebirds]]
[[Category:Birds of North Asia]]
[[Category:Wintering birds of Southeast Asia]]
[[Category:Wintering birds of Oceania]]
[[Category:Birds described in 1816|grey-tailed tattler]]
[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]
[[Category:Taxa named by Louis Pierre Vieillot|grey-tailed tattler]]