Piper’s Sandpipers

BirdNote^®
Piper’s Sandpipers
Written by Piper Bayard

This is BirdNote.

I’m Piper, a fourth grader in Washington State.

Sandpipers first caught my attention because my name is Piper, but then I started learning amazing things about them. There are many different species of sandpipers, but today, I’ll tell you about my top three.

         [Splash of a wave, E3 Timpani drum roll]

At number three: the Upland Sandpiper!

         [Upland Sandpiper]

This sandpiper isn’t usually found at the beach. Upland Sandpipers live in grasslands and prairies. They eat beetles, grasshoppers, and even spiders! Their mottled brown feathers help them stay camouflaged while hunting... and they’re pretty!

         [Splash of a wave, A2 Timpani drum roll]

My number two sandpiper is: the Least Sandpiper!

         [Least Sandpiper]  

This is the tiniest sandpiper of all. It only weighs one ounce — as much as four quarters —but each spring, it migrates up to 2,500 miles from the Arctic to South America.

         [Splash of a wave, C3 Timpani drum roll]

And my number one sandpiper: the Sanderling!

         [Sanderling]

First of all, they look cute and soft. They can run faster than probably any other bird you’ll see at the beach. And they are very social, often moving in flocks to avoid predators.

         [Sanderling]

What’s your favorite sandpiper? Tell us at birdnote.org.

For BirdNote, I’m Piper Bayard.

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Senior Producer: Mark Bramhill
Producer: Sam Johnson
Managing Producer: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Ariana Remmel
Content Director: Jonese Franklin

Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Least Sandpiper ML79090981 recorded by Garrett MacDonald. Sanderling ML138266 recorded by Gerrit Vyn and ML636391934 recorded by Mark Lewis. Upland Sandpiper ML516735 recorded by Wil Hershberger.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2026 BirdNote August 2026
Narrator: Piper Bayard

ID# kids-01-08-12       kids-01