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The UK Bird Atlas

Buff-breasted Sandpiper (Calidris subruficollis)Where and when to see it in the UK

Passage migrant · reporting peaks October · Sandpipers and Allies · BOU category A

Records to 2026-08-16 · build 2026-08-31

Buff-breasted Sandpiper (Calidris subruficollis)
USFWS - Pacific Region, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Buff-breasted Sandpiper: relative reporting rate by 10 km square, September

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (grid squares, place names from OS Open Names). Northern Ireland place names: OSNI Open Data, OGL v3.0. County and country boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Coastline: Natural Earth. Bird records from the data partners listed here.

Buff-breasted Sandpiper has been recorded in 112 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (4%) in records to 2026. Passage migrant in the UK. Its strongest squares are in England, Scotland and Wales. Reporting peaks in October.

Conservation status: Vulnerable (IUCN Red List, VU)
View on the IUCN Red List
Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
100% or more of visits
High
2% to 100%
Moderate
<1% to 2%
Low
under <1%
Surveyed, not recorded
at least 20 qualifying visits, no record
Insufficient records
too few visits to say
Lighter fill
Few visits, lower confidence
Small dot
Occasional: a single record, or out of season

Seasonality

Reporting rate by month, relative to the peak month
MonthRelative to peakShare of visitsTypical class
January 0%<1%Insufficient records
February 0%<1%Insufficient records
March 0%<1%Low
April 1%<1%Moderate
May 9%<1%Very high
June 1%<1%Very high
July 1%<1%Very high
August 18%<1%Very high
September 81%<1%Very high
October 100%<1%Low
November 0%<1%Insufficient records
December 0%<1%Insufficient records

Squares with the highest reporting rate in October

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
NC01Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NR60Argyll and Bute, Scotland100%Very high
ST38Newport, Wales100%Very high
SX73Devon, England100%Very high
SY66Dorset, England100%Very high
TA09North Yorkshire, England100%Very high
TQ63East Sussex, England100%Very high
TR01Kent, England100%Very high
TF33Lincolnshire, England30%High
SX18Cornwall, England9%High

Spotted an error in a square? Report it and it goes into the review queue. Read the methodology for how classes, flags and sensitive-species rules work. Data to 2026.