Nordmann's Greenshank

Identification

Breeding adult mostly gray above, white below, with densely spotted breast and upper sides. Nonbreeding adult pearly gray above and snowy white below. Bicolored bill is olive-green at the base, darkening towards the tip. Yellowish-green legs.

Confusing Species

Terek Sandpiper

Common Greenshank

Distribution

No ordinary distribution in Australia.

Migratory habits

The species makes an annual migration from its overwintering grounds in Southeast Asia, through the Yellow Sea, up to the Sea of Okhotsk coast of eastern Russia for the summer breeding season, and back down again for the boreal winter. 

Breeding

Known to breed on the western bays of the Sea of Okhotsk.

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. Maleko, P. N., V. V. Pronkevich, and K. S. Maslovsky (2021). Nordmann’s Greenshank (Tringa guttifer), version 2.0. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, P. G. Rodewald, and B. K. Keeney, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.norgre1.02