The Least Sandpiper is the smallest shorebird in the world, a sparrow-sized "peep" that creeps over the mud with a hunched posture, picking daintily at tiny prey. Brown and streaked above with a fine, slightly drooping bill, its best field mark is its yellow-green legs — most similar small sandpipers have black legs, so leg color quickly narrows the identification. It tends to favor the drier, more vegetated edges of mudflats and wet fields, often a little back from the water compared with its black-legged relatives.
Least Sandpipers nest on the northern tundra and bogs and pass through Michigan as migrants, appearing on mudflats, marsh edges, and flooded fields in spring and over a long stretch of late summer and fall. They often forage in mixed flocks of small shorebirds, and picking the yellow-legged Least out from the black-legged Semipalmated and other peeps is a classic exercise in shorebird identification. Their soft, rolling "kreee" calls drift up from feeding flocks.
Picks small invertebrates — insects, tiny crustaceans, and worms — from the surface of mud and shallow water, foraging with a hunched posture and rapid pecking. It often works the drier, more vegetated margins of flats and fields, taking prey from the surface rather than probing deeply.
Its yellow-green legs are the key — most other small sandpipers have black legs. Combined with its very small size, hunched posture, brown streaky plumage, and fine drooped bill, the leg color makes identification much easier.
The Least Sandpiper is the smallest shorebird in the world, only about sparrow-sized. Its tiny size, along with the yellow legs, helps separate it from other small sandpipers.
As a migrant in spring and over a long late-summer-into-fall window, on mudflats, marsh edges, and flooded fields. It nests on the northern tundra and bogs and does not breed in the state.
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