Sandpiper Name given for a large family of small shore birds, which includes the Snipe and the Curlew . Sandpipers have long legs and slender bills for probing in sand or mud for their prey , being wading birds they feed on all sorts of small invertebrates . Their coloring is dull with brown or gray above and buff with streaks of spots below .
Sandpipers are found throughout the Northern Hemisphere in flocks on seacoasts , but some frequent inland waters and marshes. In North America the spotted and solitary sandpipers can be found by streams ; also the Baird's, least, semipalmated , Western, and white rumped sandpipers , collectively called" peeps" and the red backed sandpiper or dunlin ; and of the greater and lesser yellow legs, the willet , the knot, and the sandeling. |