Wood Sandpiper

The Wood Sandpiper, Tringa glareola, is a small wader

It resembles a longer-legged and more delicate Green (T. ochropus) or Solitary Sandpiper (T. solitaria) with a short fine bill, brown back and longer yellowish legs. It differs from the first of those species in a smaller and less contrasting white rump patch, while the Solitary Sandpiper nas no white rump patch at all.

However, it is not very closely related to these two species. Rather, its closest relative is the Common Redshank (T. totanus), and these two share a sister relationship with the Marsh Sandpiper (T. stagnatilis). These three species are a group of smallish shanks with red or yellowish legs, a breeding plumage that is generally subdued light brown above with some darker mottling and with a pattern of somewhat diffuse small brownish spots on the breast and neck.

The Wood Sandpiper is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.