Dunlin : Spotted During Kerala Bird Race
Dunlin was among the 192 avian species spotted during the recently held Kochi edition of the Kerala Bird Race.
- Dunlin is a small shorebird with a droopy bill and is a fully migratory circumpolar breeder.
- Dunlins are medium-sized sandpipers with a slightly down-curved black bill.
- During the summer breeding season, they have a large black belly spot and orange feathers on their back and in winter and nonbreeding season, they are all white with a gray back and head.
- A group of Dunlin is known as a “flight,” “fling,” or “trip.”
- During the breeding season, they live in coastal tundra areas. In the winter, they live along mudflats, estuaries, marshes and coastlines.
- They spend the summer breeding season in the arctic and subarctic regions, and winter along both coasts of the United States and Mexico.
- Insects form the main part of the Dunlin’s diet on the nesting grounds; they eat mollusks, worms, and crustaceans during the winter and on migration.
- Conservation status : IUCN: Near threatened
- It is threatened by habitat loss caused by wetland draining, global warming, and invasive plants, particularly at migration staging and wintering areas.
