Marsh Sandpiper

The marsh sandpiper is a small, elegant shank that looks like a slim greenshank, with a long fine bill and very long yellowish legs. It is greyish brown in breeding plumage and paler in winter, and shows a white wedge up the back in flight. It is more closely related to the common redshank and wood sandpiper than to the greenshank. It is 22 to 26 cm long with a wingspan of 55 to 59 cm and weighs 45 to 120 g (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds in open grassy steppe and taiga wetlands from easternmost Europe to the Russian Far East and is migratory, most birds wintering in Africa and India and some in Southeast Asia and Australia. It winters on freshwater wetlands and is usually seen singly or in small groups.