UK wintering birds: 14
UK passage: 770
Family: Sandpipers & allies
Adult male little stints in breeding plumage have rufous upperparts with dark centres to the feathers and paler edges and tips giving a scaled effect. On the mantle there is a white V shape. The breast is rufous with dark streaks, while the belly and undertail coverts are white.
The head and neck are rufous with dark streaks and the chin and throat are white. There is a pale supercilium that runs from the lores to the ear coverts. The dagger-shaped bill is black, the eyes yellow, and the legs and feet are black.
Females have similar plumage to males but are larger.
Out of breeding season, little stints are greyer with dull brown upperparts with dark mottles and pale fringes on the feathers. The underparts are white and sides of the breast are grey.
On the head, the crown is grey with dark streaks, the face is white and the supercilium is grey.
Juvenile little stints have dark feathers with rufous and white edges on the upperparts, with a white V on the mantle, while the breast is pale buff. The head is pale buff too, the crown is grey, and the neck and eye stripe have narrow streaks.
Little stints begin breeding in spring and lay eggs in late June or early July. They tend to be polygamous but numerous are monogamous and females will often lay two clutches with males and females incubating separate clutches. They nest on the ground in dry or grassy areas on the Arctic tundra. The nest is a shallow scraped lined with leaves and grass.
Little stints lay 3-4 olive green or yellow eggs with reddish brown spots which are incubated by both parents for 21-23 days, or separately if they are two clutches. Chicks are covered in orange or chestnut down with black and white markings on the upper parts and white on the underparts. They fledge at 15-18 days and reach sexual maturity at 2 years.
Little stints eat mainly invertebrates. During breeding season, it favours adult and larval beetles, craneflies, and mosquitoes. Out of breeding season, their diet is more varied, and they will take ants, waterbugs, small molluscs, crustaceans, mites, as well as vegetation.
It feeds by pecking at the surface of mud detecting the prey by site. It will also sometimes probe and wade in shallow water.
Little stints can be seen in the UK from August to October although some can be spotted from late April to early June when they return from their wintering grounds. Look out for them on grasslands and wetlands on the east and west coasts.
A hybrid between a little stint and a Temminck’s stint has been reported living in the Netherlands.
