Red-necked Stint

Red-necked Stint (Calidris ruficollis) is a tiny sandpiper with short black bill and legs, acquiring a rich chestnut face and throat in breeding plumage. Body shape, bill structure, plumage pattern and voice provide the strongest field characters. Age, sex and season may alter its appearance, so identification should combine several features and careful direct comparisons with similar species in the same habitat (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds on northeastern Siberian tundra and migrates to Asian and Australasian mudflats where it picks minute invertebrates. Its movements and social behaviour vary through the year, with breeding birds generally more dispersed and non-breeding birds gathering where food is concentrated. The Korean vertebrate catalogue used for this guide records the species in South Korea (Wikipedia, general species account; Wildlife of Korea occurrence records).