Actitis macularius

Spotted sandpipers are medium-sized shorebirds. They are 10-18 cm (4-8 inches) long with a wingspan of 37-20 cm (15-16 inches). The back is brown to olive-gray and the breast, in breeding plumage, is a distinctive white with heavy black spots.

The breeding range extends from northern Alaska and Canada to California, Arizona, New Mexico, Kansas, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, western West Virginia, Pennsylvania, northern North Carolina, and (occasionally) the northern portion of the Gulf states, Arkansas, western Oklahoma, and northern Texas. This species winters in the southern United States and southward through Central America and much of South America.

Spotted sandpipers use a broad range of habitats. They require a shoreline along open or vegetated water for foraging, a semi-open area for nesting, and dense vegetation for brood cover. If these requirements are met, they may nest in areas dominated by open grasslands, shrub-steppe, extensive wetlands, woodland, forest, or parks. In winter, spotted sandpipers can be found in a wide variety of natural habitats where water is present, as well as along urban and agricultural canals, ponds, and other water features.

Spotted sandpipers migrate to their breeding range in spring. The breeding system is polyandrous in that females may produce a clutch of eggs for multiple males in succession. The males do most of the incubation and care for the young. Nesting occurs from late spring to mid-summer, depending on local conditions. Young can walk and run within hours of hatching. They may return to the nest the first night after hatching. They spend most of their time with an adult male for about four weeks after hatching. Adults leave the breeding grounds in mid-summer and juveniles soon after.