The dunlin is a small wader in the genus Calidris. The English name is a dialect form of "dunling", first recorded in 1531–1532. It derives from dun, "dull brown", with the suffix -ling, meaning a person or thing with the given quality.
Region
Circumpolar Arctic and Northern Temperate Coasts
Typical Environment
Dunlins breed on Arctic and subarctic tundra, moorland, and boggy heath across Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Scandinavia, and northern Russia. Outside the breeding season they concentrate along coasts, especially estuaries, tidal mudflats, saltmarsh edges, and sandy shores across both the Atlantic and Pacific basins. During migration they also use inland wetlands, flooded fields, and lake margins. They often roost communally on sandbanks or sheltered shorelines at high tide.
Altitude Range
Sea level to 1500 m
Climate Zone
Other
Ease of Keeping
Beginner friendly: 1/5
The dunlin is a small sandpiper famous for its black belly patch in breeding plumage and tightly coordinated flocks that twist and flash over coastal flats. It breeds across the Arctic and subarctic and winters along temperate shorelines worldwide. Its gently decurved bill is adapted for probing soft mud for invertebrates, and it depends heavily on healthy intertidal habitats.
Distribution of subspecies, migration routes, and major European wintering sites
Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany
Temperament
social and active
Flight Pattern
short rapid wingbeats with agile, synchronized flocking
Social Behavior
Highly gregarious outside the breeding season, forming dense flocks that wheel over mudflats. On the breeding grounds pairs establish small territories; nests are shallow ground scrapes lined with vegetation. Clutches typically contain four eggs, with both parents incubating and tending young. They roost communally at high tide and forage in tight groups at low tide.
Migratory Pattern
Seasonal migrant
Song Description
Males deliver a soft, tinkling, trilling song during aerial displays over the territory. Contact calls are thin, rolling notes and low twitters; alarm calls are sharper and more insistent.
