This is Bird Note.

The musical, red-like song you just heard is that of a lesser yellow legs, a type of sand

piper.

We know lesser yellow legs and other sandpipers for their busy foraging on mud flats and

at the ocean's edge, but perhaps not for their singing.

Now, picture this bird in its nesting territory in Alaska, sitting atop a spruce tree.

That's right, a sand piper perched at the top of a tree like our backyard robins singing

its caroling song.

The name sand piper actually comes from the bird's voices, rather than from their long

build probing in the sand.

While the name refers in particular to the bird's short piped or whistled calls, a number

of sandpipers are also superior and surprising singers.

Listen to this Dunlin as it sings in flight over its nesting territory in the Alaskan

Tundra.

And this eerie hooting, which might conjure up the image of an owl at night, is actually

the song of a pectoral sand piper.

Singing on the Tundra well north of the Arctic Circle.

You can hear these sandpipers again and see photos when you come to our website, birdnote.org.

I'm Mary McCann.