Distribution

Breeding Range

The Sharp-tailed Sandpiper breeds in the arctic coastal plain of the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia from the Lena River delta (72^oN, 125^oE) eastwards for about 1,500 km through the Kolyma River delta to the Chaun Gulf (70^oN, 170^oE) on the northwestern Chukotka Peninsula (40 Myers, J. P., O. Hilden and P. Tomkovich. (1982). Exotic Calidris species of the Siberian tundra. Ornis Fennica 59:175-182. Close ), with an estimated total breeding range of Breeding range 349,396 km² (9 Hansen, B.D., R. A. Fuller, D. Watkins, D. I. Rogers, R. S. Clemens, M. Newman, E. J. Woehler, and D. R. Weller, D.R. (2016). Revision of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Population Estimates for 37 listed Migratory Shorebird Species. Unpublished report for the Department of the Environment. BirdLife Australia, Melbourne, Australia. Close ). A "vagrant" breeding attempt (perhaps successful) occurred in the Dovre-fjell area of southern Norway in 1970 (41 Bauer, C-A., and B. Persson (1971). A record of the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper in Norway. Sterna 10:57–62. Close ), and a potential "vagrant" breeding record was provided by four alternate-plumage adults at Kivalina, Alaska on 28 June 1967 (42 Taylor, J. W. (1969b). Sharp-tailed Sandpiper and Palm Warbler in Alaska. Wilson Bulletin 81:337-338. Close ). A handful of birds that spend the Boreal winter in Australasia do not migrate north for the Boreal summer, with as many as 20 found at a single location in mid-June in Australia (eBird data); presumably these are mostly first-year birds but may also include birds that are injured or otherwise unwell.

Nonbreeding Range

Approximately 90% of theSharp-tailed Sandpiper population winters in Australia, with smaller numbers wintering in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Taiwan, and New Zealand (43 Higgins, P. J., and S. J. J. F. Davies, Editors (1996). Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Volume 3. Pratincoles to Pigeons. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Australia. Close , 44 Kennedy, R. S., P. C. Gonzales, E. C. Dickinson, H. C. Miranda, and T. H. Fisher (2000). A Guide to the Birds of the Philippines. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York. Close , 8 Bamford, M., D. Watkins, W. Bancroft, G. Tischler, and J. Wahl (2008). Migratory shorebirds of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway: population estimates and internationally important sites. Wetlands International, Canberra, Australia. Close , 9 Hansen, B.D., R. A. Fuller, D. Watkins, D. I. Rogers, R. S. Clemens, M. Newman, E. J. Woehler, and D. R. Weller, D.R. (2016). Revision of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Population Estimates for 37 listed Migratory Shorebird Species. Unpublished report for the Department of the Environment. BirdLife Australia, Melbourne, Australia. Close , eBird data, accessed 14 January 2022).

Most of Australia's Sharp-tailed Sandpiper winter in the southeast of the country from eastern South Australia (east of line from Streaky Bay to Pandiburra Bore), through Victoria and New South Wales, to central Queensland; numbers of Sharp-tailed Sandpipers are also found in Western Australia from Carnavaron north through the coastal and subcoastal plains of the Pilbara Region and into the eastern Kimberley Division of the Northern Territory, mostly west of Groote Eylandt and Gove Peninsula, and on Tasmania, mostly east of line from George Town to Hobart (43 Higgins, P. J., and S. J. J. F. Davies, Editors (1996). Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Volume 3. Pratincoles to Pigeons. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Australia. Close ). In all of these states and territories, the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper is usually found predominantly along and near the coast, but ephemeral wetlands across inland Australia are also frequented at times, and the species' distribution varies considerably from year-to-year and from month-to-month depending on where and when inland rain has fallen (43 Higgins, P. J., and S. J. J. F. Davies, Editors (1996). Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Volume 3. Pratincoles to Pigeons. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Australia. Close , 45 Stuart, A. (2019). Recent high counts of Sharp-tailed Sandpiper in the Hunter Estuary. The Whistler 13:56–61. Close ). The greatest concentrations during surveys from 1981 to 1985 were 55,700 at The Coorong, South Australia, 25,000 at Eighty Mile Beach, Western Australia, 20,000 at Port Hedland Saltworks, Western Australia, and 17,000 at Gulf St Vincent, South Australia (43 Higgins, P. J., and S. J. J. F. Davies, Editors (1996). Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Volume 3. Pratincoles to Pigeons. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Australia. Close ).

Elsewhere, approximately 5,000 Sharp-tailed Sandpipers winter in southern Indonesia, 5,000 winter in southern Papua New Guinea, 4,100 winter on Taiwan, 100 to 200 winter in New Zealand (greatest concentrations in Northland and Aukland on the northern island and near Christchurch on the southern Island), and in small numbers on the Phililippines (43 Higgins, P. J., and S. J. J. F. Davies, Editors (1996). Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Volume 3. Pratincoles to Pigeons. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Australia. Close , 44 Kennedy, R. S., P. C. Gonzales, E. C. Dickinson, H. C. Miranda, and T. H. Fisher (2000). A Guide to the Birds of the Philippines. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York. Close , 8 Bamford, M., D. Watkins, W. Bancroft, G. Tischler, and J. Wahl (2008). Migratory shorebirds of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway: population estimates and internationally important sites. Wetlands International, Canberra, Australia. Close , eBird data, accessed 14 January 2022).

Extralimital Records

Vagrant Sharp-tailed Sandpiper occur circumglobally in the Northern Hemisphere's temperate zone, with the vast majority recorded during fall, and with the density of records somewhat mimicking the density of potential observers. The ratio of adults to juveniles for any given region depends on the area's proximity to their migration routes: In western North America, the vast majority of records are of juveniles (46 Mlodinow, S.G. (2001). Possible anywhere: Sharp-tailed Sandpiper. Birding 33:330-341. Close ), in Britain and Ireland, 19 of 23 records were of adults (47 Vinicombe, K., and D. Cottridge (1996). Rare Birds in Britain and Ireland. A Photographic Record. Harper Collins, London, United Kingdom. Close ), and along the North American Atlantic Coast, 12 of 17 fall records pertained to adults (46 Mlodinow, S.G. (2001). Possible anywhere: Sharp-tailed Sandpiper. Birding 33:330-341. Close ).

Vagrant records from the tropics are many fewer, perhaps due to a lower number of potential observers. There are two African records: Madagascar in November 1999 (48 Patient, R. (2003). The first Sharp-tailed Sandpiper Calidris acuminata for Madagascar. Bull. African Bird Club. 10(1): 50–51. Close ) and Mozambique, with one to two birds present from 4 February to 16 April 2018 (49 Allport, G. (2018). First records of Sharp-tailed Sandpiper Calidris acuminata for Mozambique and continental Africa, and additional records of Pectoral Sandpiper C. melanotos in Mozambique, with comments on identification and patterns of occurrence. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club, 138:307—317. Close ). There are two records from the Arabian Peninsula: Oman in February 2000 (50 Eriksen, J., and R. Victor (2013). Oman Bird List: the Official List of the Birds of the Sultanate of Oman. Seventh edition. Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman. Close ) and Yemen (51 Brooks, D. J., M. I. Evans, R. P. Martins, and R. F. Porter (1987). The status of birds in North Yemen and the records of the OSME Expedition in autumn 1985. Sandgrouse 9:4–66. Close ). Sri Lanka has several records, mostly from December (eBird data, accessed 17 December 2022). In the central and western Indian Ocean, there are five records from the Chagos Archipelago, all from September to December (52 Carr, P. (2015). Birds of the British Indian Ocean Territory, Chagos archipelago, central Indian Ocean. Indian Birds 10(3–4):57–70. Close ), five records from the Seychelles (one in July, two overwintering, and two southbound migrants in November; 53 Skerrett, A., M. Betts, J. Bowler, I. Bullock, D. Fisher, R. Lucking, and J. Phillips (2017). Fifth report of the Seychelles Bird Records Committee. Bulletin of the African Bird Club 24: 63–75. Close ), and two November records from Easter Island (54 Marín, M., and P. Cáceres (2010). Sobre las aves de Isla de Pascua. Boletín del Museo Nacional de Historia Natural (Chile) 59:75–95. Close , eBird data). A truly remarkable record comes from Tristan de Cunha, in the middle of the southern Atlantic Ocean, on 16 June 1950 (55 Elliott, H. F. I. (1957). A contribution to the ornithology of the Tristan da Cunha group. Ibis 99(4):545–586. Close , 43 Higgins, P. J., and S. J. J. F. Davies, Editors (1996). Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Volume 3. Pratincoles to Pigeons. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Australia. Close , 49 Allport, G. (2018). First records of Sharp-tailed Sandpiper Calidris acuminata for Mozambique and continental Africa, and additional records of Pectoral Sandpiper C. melanotos in Mozambique, with comments on identification and patterns of occurrence. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club, 138:307—317. Close ). There are but two records from Mexico, one from Central America, and one from South America: one bird in Baja California, Mexico on 16 October 2016 (eBird), one from Socorro Island, Colima, Mexico on 6 November 2021 (eBird), one from Panama on 16 October 2016 (eBird) and another from Bolivia on 14 November 2014 (56 Knowlton, W.H. (2016). Sharp-tailed Sandpiper Calidris acuminata in Bolivia: first documented record for South America. Cotinga. 38: 20–22. Close ).

Noteworthy are the small number of birds that have over-wintered on Hawaii, including birds that returned for more than one year and were thus adults (57 Pyle, R. L., and P. Pyle (2017). The Birds of the Hawaiian Islands: Occurrence, History, Distribution, and Status. Version 2. B. P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu, HI, USA. Close ).

The breeding range of the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper may be expanding farther westward (58 Lappo, E., P. P. Tomkovich, and E. E. Syroechkovskiy (2012). Atlas of breeding waders in the Russian Arctic. UF Ofsetnaya Pechat, Moscow, Russia. Close ).