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Dunlin
Calidris alpina
Order
CHARADRIIFORMES
– Family
SCOLOPACIDAE
Authors: Warnock, Nils D., and Robert E. Gill

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Measurements

Figure 6. Culmen lengths of North American Dunlin, by race and sex.

Linear

Bill

See Figure 6 .

Wing Length

Mean ± SD (n) flattened wing length (mm): C. a. arcticola: male 117.7 ± 2.7 (12) (Browning 1991) to 121.8 ± 2.6 (78) (Greenwood 1986), female 117.0 ± 2.0 (10) (Browning 1991) to 125.1 ± 2.1 (53) (Greenwood 1986); C. a. hudsonia: male 119.6 ± 2.4 (37) to 120.3 ± 1.6 (9) (Greenwood 1986), female 121.6 ± 2.1 (7) to 122.2 ± 2.2 (27) (Greenwood 1986); C. a. pacifica: male 121.4 ± 2.4 (58), female 125.0 ± 2.9 (41) (Greenwood 1986).

Tarsus Length

Mean ± SD (n) tarsus length (mm): C. a. arcticola: male 26.2 ± 0.8 (87), female 27.1 ± 0.8 (65) (Greenwood 1986); C. a. hudsonia: male 27.0 ± 1.1 (37) to 27.4 ± 0.6 (9), female 27.4 ± 0.8 (27) to 27.6 ± 0.6 (8) (Greenwood 1986); C. a. pacifica: male 25.3 (18) (R. Gerstenberg pers. comm.) to 26.6 ± 1.0 (62) (Greenwood 1986), female 26.2 (10) (R. Gerstenberg pers. comm.) to 27.5 ± 0.8 (42) (Greenwood 1986).

Mass

See Appendix . See also Migration: control and physiology. Two peaks in mass occur during spring and fall migration. Wintering C. a. pacifica lose mass from Oct through Mar, then begin to gain mass; rapid gain occurs from first half of Apr (see Appendix) to last half; mass of breeding birds declines slightly Jun–Jul, rising at end of summer (Holmes 1966b). In England, C. a. alpina shows a midwinter peak, and midwinter mass inversely correlated with mean Dec temperatures (Pienkowski et al. 1979).