The Green Sandpiper (Tringa ochropus) is a small, blackish-and-white wader that bursts up from a forest ditch with loud, ringing calls, its brilliant white rump flashing against an almost black back. Measuring 21–24 cm with a wingspan of 41–46 cm and weighing 70–100 grams, it has dark olive-brown upperparts finely spotted with pale markings and clean white underparts. In flight the contrast between the glowing white rump and the near-black upperwing and dark underwing is one of the most reliable field marks, while a white eye-ring and short pale stripe before the eye give the bird a gentle facial expression. Dark greenish-grey legs and a straight, fairly short bill complete the picture.
When flushed it rises steeply with a sharp, ringing "tluitt-vitt-vitt", and during its display flight over the breeding territory it gives a rhythmic, yodelling "tittudia-tittudia" that carries far on early spring mornings. Unusually for a wader, the Green Sandpiper does not nest on the ground: the female lays her eggs — typically four — in an old tree nest once used by a thrush, pigeon or squirrel, often several metres up in spruce forest, and the newly hatched chicks jump down soon after hatching. It breeds throughout Sweden, from Skåne to the birch forests near the mountains, and is most numerous in Norrland, with a population estimated at 50,000–100,000 pairs. Arriving as early as late March, it is one of the very first spring waders, favouring shaded forest streams, swampy woodland and overgrown ditches rather than open shorelines, where it feeds on aquatic insects, larvae, worms and small crustaceans picked from mud and shallow water.
Read about this species in Swedish →