Some Aspects of the Breeding Biology of the Upland Sandpiper in North Dakota

Abstract

The general nesting range of the Upland Sandpiper (Bartramia longicauda), formerly called Upland Plover, extends from northwestern Alaska, northern Yukon, southern Mackenzie, central Manitoba, southern Ontario, and southern Quebec south into the United States as far as Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Colorado then north-northwest to northern Oregon. Elliott Coues (1874:504) stated, Its breeding habits may be studied with perfect success in Northern Dakota, where it is the most abundant of all the waders. As late as 1914, North Dakota was still one of the principal breeding areas for the Upland Sandpiper in the U.S., and only in southern Manitoba and eastern Saskatchewan could breeding pairs of this species be found in greater abundance (Cooke 1914:283). In 1967, Stewart and Kantrud (1972) surveyed the breeding birds of North Dakota and found that the Upland Sandpiper was still a major breeding species there. The purpose of this paper is to provide a better understanding of certain aspects of the breeding biology of Upland Sandpipers in North Dakota.