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The UK Bird Atlas

Curlew Sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea)Where and when to see it in the UK

Status not yet classified · reporting peaks September · Sandpipers and Allies · BOU category A

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

Curlew Sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea)
Marek Szczepanek, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Curlew 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.

Curlew Sandpiper has been recorded in 481 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (16%) in records to 2026. Its strongest squares are in England, Scotland and Wales. Reporting peaks in September.

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
15% or more of visits
High
4% to 15%
Moderate
1% to 4%
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%Very high
February 0%<1%Low
March 0%<1%Low
April 3%<1%Low
May 10%<1%Low
June 5%<1%Low
July 21%<1%Low
August 59%2%Low
September 100%3%High
October 24%<1%Low
November 2%<1%Low
December 0%<1%Low

Squares with the highest reporting rate in September

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
HP50Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
HU41Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
NF76Na h-Eileanan Siar, Scotland100%Very high
NJ92Aberdeenshire, Scotland100%Very high
NK06Aberdeenshire, Scotland100%Very high
NK14Aberdeenshire, Scotland100%Very high
NR26Argyll and Bute, Scotland100%Very high
NT47East Lothian, Scotland100%Very high
NX15Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland100%Very high
NX96Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland100%Very 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.