Long-toed Stint

The long-toed stint is a very small wader, 13–16cm long with a wingspan of 26.5–30.5cm and a weight of about 25g. It has a small head, a short, straight, sharp-tipped dark bill, a slender neck, and long yellow legs set well back with long, slender toes. Breeding adults are rich brown above with darker feather centres and white below, with a brown crown and a pale line above the eye; in winter they are grey above. It is hard to separate from other tiny stints, and resembles the North American least sandpiper and the red-necked stint (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds in Siberia and is strongly migratory, wintering in South and South-east Asia and Australasia; it is only a very rare vagrant to western Europe. It forages on mudflats, picking food by sight or probing, and takes small crustaceans, insects and snails. Little is known of its breeding habits. Its closest relative is Temminck's stint. SoIB 2023 lists it as a winter migrant in India but gives no trend or priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).