Temminck's Stint

Temminck's stint is a very small wader, 13.5–15cm long, similar in size to the little stint but shorter-legged and longer-winged, with dull yellowish or brown legs and white outer tail feathers rather than the little stint's black legs and grey outer tail. It is rather drab, with plain brown upperparts and head and white underparts apart from a darker breast; breeding adults show a few rufous or blackish back feathers. In winter it looks like a tiny common sandpiper. Its call is a loud trill (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds in bogs and marshes in the taiga from southern Scandinavia to the Chukotski Peninsula, with a distinctive hovering display flight, and lays three or four eggs in a ground scrape. Its breeding system is unusual: a female lays a first clutch for one male to incubate, then moves to a second male and lays a clutch she incubates herself. It winters at freshwater sites in tropical Africa, the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. In India it is a winter migrant; SoIB 2023 estimates a long-term decline of about 51% and rates it a Moderate conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).