Green Sandpiper

Identification

Medium-sized, dark sandpiper. Breast and upper flanks streaked grey-brown. Underparts white with white rump. Tail white with thick black bars.  Non-breeding adult has less spotted upperparts and face. Foreneck and centre of breast whiter, and no streaking on flanks. Juvenile like breeding adult, with buff spots on upperparts. Paler breast and no streaks on flanks. White eye-ring very distinct.

Confusing Species

Wood Sandpiper

Distribution

No ordinary distribution in Australia.

Migratory habits

Migrates south to central Africa and Arabian Peninsula.

Breeding

Breeds in northern Eurasia.

References

1. Geering, Andrew, Lindsay Agnew, and Sandra Harding, eds. Shorebirds of Australia. Csiro Publishing, 2007.
2. eBird. 2021. eBird: An online database of bird distribution and abundance [web application]. eBird, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Available:  http://www.ebird.org (Accessed: Date 12/4/2026)
3. Rogers A, Fuller RA & Amano T (2023) Australia’s migratory shorebirds: Trends and prospects. Report to the National Environmental Science Program. University of Queensland, Brisbane.
4. Driessen, J., Kidd, L. R., Weller, D. R., Purnell, C., Maguire, G., Jaensch, R., and LeClair, S. M. (2025). Australian National Directory of Important Migratory Shorebird Habitat. Report for the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. BirdLife Australia, Melbourne.
5. https://sproggies63.github.io/birding_apps/
6. van Gils, J., P. Wiersma, and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Green Sandpiper (Tringa ochropus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.grnsan.01