Wandering Tattler

Found in nearly every region by the Pacific coastline, the Wandering Tattler is an inconspicuous shorebird that has a wide distribution from North America to Australia. They are named after their distinctive calls, a loud “tattling” sound that can travel large distances. True to their name, they are migratory birds that may not always return to their breeding grounds after the end of the winter. Instead, they choose to continue wandering and find new areas towards the south of their range instead.

About Wandering Tattlers

They are mainly solitary, often choosing to remain by themselves or with a chosen few rather than living in colonies throughout the year. Although they gather during the breeding seasons, they depart and take their own routes soon after the season ends. This, combined with a small population, makes them very hard to find during the cooler months of the year. Their preference for undisturbed habitats only adds to this reputation. This makes these birds somewhat of an ornithological mystery. They are widely spoken about but understudied due to their withdrawn personalities.

Most of the information we have about them comes from observations of their behaviors during the breeding seasons. Although the picture that we have painted of them is incomplete, the details gleaned from the breeding seasons can help give us an idea about what they are like for the remainder of the year. Today, we are going to be talking about
these birds.

● Wandering Tattler Photos, Color Pattern, Song
● Wandering Tattler Size, Eating Behavior, Habitat
● Wandering Tattler Range and Migration, Nesting

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Wandering Tattler Color Pattern

Wandering Tattlers are rather unassuming in color. Their upper parts are entirely gray in color throughout the year. However, during the breeding seasons, their underparts are heavily barred. Their flight feathers also exhibit a spectrum of shades, with their outer wing being darker than the rest of the wing when they are in flight. They have a narrow white “eyebrow” that seems to join their forehead, along with dark lores that seem to extend to regions behind their eye. During the breeding seasons, their ears, cheeks, chin, throat, foreneck, and the sides of their neck have gray streaks. In contrast, they lose their streaks and barred underparts during the nonbreeding seasons. Their bill is a blackish shade, with a greenish to gray base in the lower mandible, while their irises are a dark brown. The legs are grayish yellow-brown to greenish-yellow.

Juveniles look similar to nonbreeding adults but have their gray breast and flanks very faintly smudged and barred with dark colors. This gives them a mottled appearance instead of the even patterns visible in adults. They also show small whitish tips and spotting in their flight feathers. These birds are not sexually dimorphic in nature, meaning that both sexes display no differences in plumage.

Description and Identification

These birds are rather difficult to spot with the naked eye. Their gray and white plumes make them blend in with their surroundings, often leading to observers being unable to see them. During the breeding seasons, you can find groups of these birds. If they are alarmed, they let out their distinct “tattling” call which alerts other birds. Although they take flight almost immediately if disturbed, their call is a sure-fire way to identify them. When noticed from a distance, their streaked and barred bodies contrast with their yellow legs. These patterns can also confirm their identifications.

Wandering Tattler Song

Wandering Tattlers have a wide vocal range. The environments that they inhabit are generally very loud, leading them to evolutionarily develop calls that can permeate through their surroundings. Their calls are generally divided into the classes of piping calls and rippled trills. Piping calls are brief, loud, and possess a ringing quality. The piercing quality
is most likely an adaptation to their loud environments, such as rushing mountain streams or crashing waves at a seashore. It sounds like “tweet tweet tweet”, similar to that of Spotted Sandpipers but harsher in quality. The second class, rippled trills of calls possess a trilling, repetitive quality to it. It can sound like “lidididi”, “ulilili”, or “ki-ree-ree”. These calls can last anywhere between 5–10 seconds.

Additional calls include a raspy trill that occurs during copulation and during aggressive encounters, along with paired whistles that sound like “too-ee, too-ee, too-ee”. They also give out “klee-ik” calls, cricket-like trills that sound similar to piping calls. Brooding calls that are a low “deedle-deedle-cherr”, and retreat trills that sound like “ree-ree-ree-ree”. The context of retreat calls is in adults uttering it when they want to lead their chicks away from potential threats. Chicks give out a basic call as well, a plaintive peeping that sounds like the begging calls of many other species.

Wandering Tattler Size

Wandering Tattlers are medium-size, stout shorebirds with long, straight, and thick bills and short, thick legs. They are about 10.2–11.8 inches in length and weigh approximately 2.1–6 ounces. Their bill is rather short, while their wings are long with a wingspan of 19.7–21.6 inches. They have a long tail. These proportions place them between a Robin and a Crow in size.

Wandering Tattler Behavior

These birds generally forage on the ground, often walking or even running when they are chasing prey. They frequently bob their tails and body up and down when they walk while rapidly tilting their entire head. They perch on trees, bushes, and rocks during the breeding seasons. Their flight is also rather strong. They take swift and direct strides while in the air but may glide, soar, nose-dive, or engage in some other form of powered flight. Adults swim if required, although they rarely ever swim while foraging. Newly hatched chicks learn to swim very quickly.

Due to the ambiguity between the appearances of the two sexes, their behaviors are difficult to pin down. There are ocassionally violent fights between the birds that may be due to territoriality. Behaviors during copulation are also unclear due to the common occurrence of reversed sex and homosexual mountings. Since most of these observations are based on birds that have not been banned, the social contexts in which they occur are unclear. Physical encounters generally involve birds mounting on their opponent or threatening them while facing them and waving their wings. They are most likely extremely territorial during the breeding seasons, but they retain some territoriality during the winters as well.

These pairs are monogamous. However, there have been observations of females copulating with two different males, suggesting that polyandry might be a common occurrence among these birds. Courtship probably occurs through aerial chases with splashes of fluttering and gliding. Flight displays are an important part of not only initiating courtship but also in maintaining pair bonds. Some pairs reunite for many breeding seasons, though not all pairs do.

Wandering Tattler Diet

Wandering Tattlers are extremely active foragers, moving about the rocky coasts far more quickly than other shorebirds of their range. They pick items from the surface and probe their surroundings with their bills. They mainly forage by walking or wading along streams rather than diving into the water. Their diet mainly includes insects, crustaceans, and mollusks. However, during the breeding seasons, their diet incorporates insects like flies, beetles, and caddisflies as well. They continue to feed on insects during the winters as well, especially if their preferred diet is unavailable. During migration, they eat a variety of mollusks, marine worms, crabs and other crustaceans, and other aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates.

Wandering Tattler Habitat

These birds live along the rocky coasts and pebbly beaches by the Pacific Ocean. Their breeding grounds are near mountain streams above the timberline, where they are mainly along rocky or gravelly streams in the northern mountains. Migration seasons take them towards their coastal wintering grounds. They settle in rock jetties or breakwaters as well. Sometimes, they may be in nearby mudflats and sand beaches while foraging, but they tend to return to their preferred wintering grounds of rocky beaches.

Range and Migration

Wandering Tattlers live along most Pacific coastlines, with their North American populations breeding along the coasts of Alaska and north-western Canada. They are drawntowards rocky areas along mountain streams, but they may settle on rocky islands as well.

Migration seasons take them towards the Pacific coastlines of southern Canada and of California, where they make stops at similar habitats. Their wintering habitats are located further south, where they go towards the Baja California Peninsula, Mexican coastlines, and even Central America. On occasion, they can travel to distances as far as the Peruvian coasts in South America as well.

Wandering Tattler Lifecycle

The number of broods a pair can have is unknown, but a brood usually consists of 4 olive green eggs. Both parents incubate the eggs for 23–25 days, after which the chicks emerge covered in down. The young ones are able to leave the nest soon after hatching and are strong swimmers even when they are small. Initially, both parents tend to the young but after a week or two, only one adult remains with them. The young are capable of feeding themselves from an early age, but the adults remain to brood and protect them. The age at which they learn to fly is unfortunately unknown, but it is assumed that they gain independence only after their first flight.

Nesting

Nest sites are selected within the individual’s breeding territories, but it is unclear if the male or the female makes the final selection of the nest site. Nest sites are on the ground among rocks or gravel near a mountain stream, where one of the members of the pair makes a shallow depression. The nest makes use of the shallow depression and may not necessarily have any lining in the interiors. Sometimes, however, the interiors are lined with small twigs, rootlets, and dry leaves.

Anatomy of a Wandering Tattler

Wandering Tattlers are medium-sized, stout shorebirds with long, straight, and thick bills and short, thick legs. They are about 10.2–11.8 inches in length and weigh approximately 2.1–6 ounces. Their bill is rather short, while their wings are mid-sized to long with a wingspan of 19.7–21.6 inches. They have a long tail. These proportions place them between a Robin and a Crow in size.

Final Thoughts

Due to the elusive nature of these birds, keeping track of their numbers is extremely difficult. Their numbers appear to be stable, but they may be facing slight declines in their numbers like other shorebirds. Since these birds remain by coastal sides, it can be assumed that their chances of survival are higher than shorebirds that are entirely dependent on diving in shallow waters in order to forage. Perhaps due to this, they are not listed under the 2014 State of the Birds Watch List and are considered as a species of Least Concern.

Wandering Tattlers are as secretive as they are fascinating. They carry their own unique sense of aesthetics and blend in beautifully with their surroundings. They also carry certain peculiarities that distinguish them from other shorebirds, namely their preference for walking and foraging along with their rocky homes. Despite their unassuming appearances, their loud tattling calls seamlessly blend in with the loud ambiances they surround themselves in. So, head to the beach if you live on the western coast, and maybe you will hear their distinct calls echo through the sound of waves crashing against the rocks.

Ornithology

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Bird Watching Binoculars for IdentifyingWandering Tattlers

The most common types of bird watching binoculars for viewing Wandering Tattlers are 8×21 binoculars and 10×42 binoculars. Bird Watching Academy & Camp sells really nice 8×21 binoculars and 10×42 binoculars. You can view and purchase them here.

Wandering Tattler Stickers

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Bird Feeders For Wandering Tattlers

There are many types of bird feeders. Bird feeders are a great addition to your backyard. Bird feeders will increase the chances of attracting birds drastically. Both kids and adults will have a great time watching birds eat at these bird feeders. There are a wide variety of bird feeders on the market and it is important to find the best fit for you and your backyard.

Bird HousesFor Wandering Tattlers

There are many types of bird houses. Building a bird house is always fun but can be frustrating. Getting a bird house for kids to watch birds grow is always fun. If you spend a little extra money on bird houses, it will be well worth every penny and they’ll look great.