Habitat

During all seasons, the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper favors locations where short or emergent vegetation encounters shallow water, whether saline, brackish, or fresh.

The Sharp-tailed Sandpiper breeds in the wettest habitat used by any Siberian calidridine (59 Myers, J.P., Hildén O. and Tomkovich, P. (1982). Exotic Calidris species of the Siberian tundra. Ornis Fennica. 59: 175–182. Close ). It favors the peat/hummock portions of the low-Arctic dwarf-shrub tundra, where drier shrub-covered hammocks (2-3 m high) arise from moss-sedge and peaty hollows (60 Snow, D. W., and C. M. Perrins (1998). The Birds of the Western Palearctic, Volume 1: Non-passerines. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Close ). Breeding territories contain multiple moss-edged bog patches for feeding as well as dry areas of tundra (61 Flint, V.E. and Tomkovich, P.S. (1982). [Ecological and ethological isolation in the Pectoral Sandpiper and the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper]. Pp. 241–261 in: Gavrilov, V.M. & Potapov, R.L. eds. (1982). [Ornithological Studies of the USSR]. Vol. 2. Zoological Institute, USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow. In Russian. Close ).

At their staging areas in coastal western Alaska, juveniles use mesic to dry sedge and grass meadows with numerous ponds, depressions, and tidal areas that are partially or completely inundated during extreme high tides; the dominant vegetation includes Carex ramenskii, Puccinellia phryganodes, Hippuris tetraphylla, and Calamagrostis spp. (62 Handel, C. M., and R. E. Gill, Jr. (2010). Wayward Youth: Trans-Beringian Movement and Differential Southward Migration by Juvenile Sharp-tailed Sandpipers. Arctic 63:273-288. Close ).

Throughout migration and the Boreal winter, the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper favors shallow water (saline, brackish or fresh) or adjacent mud with inundated or emergent sedges, grass, or other low vegetation, including saltmarsh and brackish lagoons (especially where Salicornia and Cotula provide cover), rice fields, saltworks, hypersaline lakes, sewage ponds, flooded pastures, and ephemeral wetlands (63 Brazil, M. (1991). The Birds of Japan. Christopher Helm, London, UK. 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 , 64 Brazil, M. (2009). Birds of East Asia: China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and Russia. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ). It is less commonly found feeding on open mudflats, fields of freshly mown grass, rocky shoreline, and reefs (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 ) and is at times attracted to algal mats as well as rotting vegetation (such as seaweed) on beaches (65 Sibson, R. B. (1970). Waders walking on waterweed. Notornis 17:242. Close , 66 Dann, P. (1983). Feeding behaviour of four species of Calidridine sandpiper at Lake Reeve in east Gippsland. Victoria Wader Study Group Bulletin 7:2–6. Close , 67 Congreve, D.P. and Congreve, P. (1985). Birds. Pp. 20-42 in: Anon. (1985). Eyre Bird Observatory Report No. 3, 1981-1983. RAOU Report 9. Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union, Melbourne, Victoria. Close ). During winter, the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper roosts at the edges of wetlands on open terrain (mudflats and beaches), in shallow water, in short sparse vegetation, or less commonly, on stony shores or rocks in water (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 ). During hot weather, the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper is sometimes found loafing on floating waterweed (65 Sibson, R. B. (1970). Waders walking on waterweed. Notornis 17:242. Close ) or on branches of dead gum tree (Eucalypteae) lying onto mudflats (68 Wakefield, W. C. (1984). The wader habitats of Moulting Lagoon, Tasmania. An Occasional Stint 3:26-34. Close ).