Upland Sandpiper

Given mostly by males in flight high over territories; starts with two short notes followed by a long, descending, ethereal whistle that carries across the prairie.

Breeds across the northern Great Plains, upper Midwest, and parts of Alaska and New England; migrates through the eastern and central United States; spends the non-breeding season in the grasslands and Pampas of southern South America.

Native tall-grass and mixed-grass prairies, grazed pastures, airfields, hay meadows, and other extensive, open grasslands with scattered perches.

On North American breeding grounds from late April to early September; southbound migration peaks July–September; winters October–March in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and southern Brazil.

The Upland Sandpiper is a long-legged, long-tailed shorebird that has abandoned the water’s edge for the wide-open spaces of native prairies, pastures, and hayfields. With its small, dove-like head perched on a thin, stretched neck and its habit of perching conspicuously on fence posts, this species looks and acts more like a quirky grassland sentinel than a typical sandpiper.