Systematics

Geographic Variation

Little geographic variation in plumage, egg size, or vocalizations. Breeding birds on Sable I. had longer culmens than those in n. Manitoba (0.5 mm, on average) and Queen Charlotte I. (0.7 mm; Miller 1979a, Cooper 1993). Butler and Kaiser (1995) reported a small proportion of birds from Fraser River delta with very long culmens (3.4% of 2,147 had culmens 0.1–3.1 mm longer than maximum culmen length of a breeding population on Queen Charlotte I. [Cooper 1993]) and suggested that these long-billed birds originated from more northern breeding areas. Geographic variation in body measurements across nonbreeding area: bill and wing length increased with latitude between California, Panama and Ecuador. Pattern observed in both males and females (Nebel 2006). Vocalizations remarkably consistent across North America (Miller 1986).

Subspecies

No subspecies recognized.

Related Species

Least Sandpiper closest in morphology, plumage, and behavior (e.g., song; Miller 1986) to Long-toed Stint (Paulson 1993; see Distinguishing Characteristics). However, based on a phylogenetic ‘supertree’ (a consensus tree of previously published trees), the three most closely related species are Semipalmated Sandpiper (C. pusilla), Little Stint (C. minuta), and White-rumped Sandpiper (C. fuscicollis) (Thomas et al. 2004). The majority of source trees (29 out of 51) were based on molecular evidence (e.g. sequence studies and DNA-DNA hybridization), but morphological trees were also included in this supertree.