The Broad-billed Sandpiper (Limicola falcinellus) is a small, dark, short-legged wader, 16–18 cm long with a wingspan of about 34–37 cm and a weight of roughly 40–60 g. The bill is relatively long and droops slightly toward the tip, and the most diagnostic feature is a double pale supercilium — two parallel light stripes above the eye, one running straight back and another angling up toward the crown. The upperparts are dark brownish-black with pale feather edges, and this double eyebrow stripe is the surest mark separating it from the similar Dunlin, which lacks the pattern and shows a black belly in breeding plumage. The call is a low, buzzing, rasping "churrrr", somewhat reminiscent of a cricket.
In Scandinavia the species breeds on wet mires and bogs in the Norwegian and Swedish mountains, nesting on a tussock in damp mire vegetation where the female lays a clutch of 4 eggs, with a single brood per short Arctic summer. The Swedish breeding population is estimated at only a few hundred to a couple of thousand pairs, and birds pass through during migration, with some resting further south. The diet consists of insects, insect larvae and other small invertebrates picked from the wet mire ground. The species is declining, and has been classified as Vulnerable (VU) on the IUCN Red List since 2024, with drainage and destruction of mires cited as the main pressure; it is best looked for on the larger mires of Swedish Lapland during the breeding season in June–July.
Read about this species in Swedish →