The Little Stint (Actitis hypoleucos) is a small bird – it is 18 to 19 cm long, and its wingspan measures between 32 and 35 cm. It is even smaller than the well-known dunlin. The Little Stint can often be recognised by its hunched posture, short legs and short neck, and by its long tail, with which during walking it typically "beats" it – it raises and lowers it with quick, abrupt movements. Its flight pattern is also very distinctive. The Little Stint flies low over water or ground. Its rapidly beating flight is interrupted by gliding on its stiff, downward-curved wings, on which a white band stands out. Fluttering and gliding alternate until it lands. The Little Stint is diurnal omnivore, i.e., it feeds on food of animal and plant origin. While it hunts adult insects and their larvae, spiders, slugs, earthworms, occasionally a tadpole or a young frog, one can observe its coloration. On the back, wings, head and neck it is gray-brown with a pattern of black stripes. Its belly is snow-white, the whiteness from the belly rises prominently toward the back in front of the wings.
The Little Stint is a migrant. It flies to wintering grounds in the African and European part of the Mediterranean at the end of July. Rarely does it also winter on the Atlantic coast of western Europe. It returns to its breeding areas toward the end of March. It prefers nesting on gravelly, sandy or rocky banks of rapidly flowing rivers; it also suits lakes with clean water, remote coastal shores and river mouths. It nests on the ground, sometimes digging a small hollow among shrubs or trees. Even during wintering it stays near various bodies of water, but generally avoids large coastal mudflats.
In Slovenia, the Little Stint is a highly endangered breeding bird. On the Red List of threatened breeding birds it is classified in the endangered category. It is mainly threatened by disturbances during breeding.
