Calidrid
Pectoral beach skiers in breeding plumage
The beach runners (Calidris ) are a genus within the family of the Waders. There are small Charadriiformes, which occur in the northern part of the northern hemisphere. A large number of species breeds in the subarctic.
The vernacular refers to the different types in some summarily as " Sea Lark ".
The Central Europe regularly observed beach runners include Red Knot, crescent beach runner, dwarf beach runners, Sanderling, Alpine beach runners and sea beach skiers.
Appearance
The beach runners have relatively long wings and legs, and short tail feathers. The beak shape is variable in adaptation to the food way. Some species have relatively short and straight beaks, in other species, the beak is longer and often easily offered down at the end. Particularly pronounced beak shape, for example, the crescent beach skiers. The smallest species is the Meadow beach runner who only reaches a body length of 10-12 centimeters. It has a wingspan of 32-35 centimeters and weighs 16-25 grams. The largest species is the Great Red Knot, which reaches a body length of 25-28 centimeters. Its wingspan is 60 to 67 centimeters. He weighs between 140 and 200 grams.
The plumage is typically pale or brownish. In many species, the head is dashed dark brown, a dark eye stripe extending from the base to the eye and beak about running a lighter over eye-streak. The feathers on the body top are lined wide. The difference between beauty and simplicity dress dress is not very pronounced. In many species are missing from the simplicity dress only affect the red-brown tones and the birds in total gray-brown.
Distribution area
Beach runners are breeding birds of the tundra and obligatory migratory birds. Use the short but food-rich summer in the far north for their propagation. Some of the species have very long migration routes. For example, pulls the Rotkehlstrandläufer from its breeding grounds in the Bering Strait to New Zealand. Some species, such as the Alpine beach runners, spend three quarters of their life on the train or in the wintering areas. They are often only a few weeks in their actual breeding area and pull immediately after the self- Are the boys back to resting and moulting quarters outside the breeding range. On their long journeys they go then sometimes in areas far from the normal migration routes. For example, Pectoral beach runners are occasionally observed in Central Europe.
Way of life
Beach skiers live mostly on insects and their larvae, which they usually pick from the ground or water surface. Some species regularly poke for food in wet ground and some also eat seeds.
The reproductive strategies of beach runners are very different. Some enter into a monogamous marriage season in which both parents birds on the breeding and rearing the young birds are involved. In other species the males are polygamous and only the female takes care of the offspring. The nest is usually only a shallow bowl, some species lay this trough with plant material from. The nests are rarely larger than four eggs. The chicks are precocial, but these are usually brooded in the first days of life of one of the parent birds.
Species
The following species are counted to the species of beach runners:
- Big Red Knot (C. tenuirostris )
- Red Knot (C. canutus )
- Sanderling (C. alba)
- Sandy beach runners (C. pusilla )
- Beach mountain runners (C. mauri )
- Dwarf beach runners (C. minuta )
- Rotkehlstrandläufer (C. ruficollis )
- Temminck's Stint ( C.temminckii )
- Long toes beach runners (C. subminuta )
- Meadow beach runners (C. minutilla )
- Weißbürzelstrandläufer (C. fuscicollis )
- Bairdstrandläufer (C. bairdii )
- Pectoral beach runners (C. melanotos )
- Spitzschwanz beach runners (C. acuminata )
- Sea beach runners (C. maritima )
- Bering beach runners (C. ptilocnemis )
- Alpine beach runners (C. alpina)
- Crescent beach runners (C. ferruginea )
- Bind beach runners (C. himantopus )