The marsh sandpiper (Tringa glareola) is much smaller than the green-legged sandpiper, and compared with the similar spotted sandpiper it is of a more slender build and longer legs. When extended it measures about 20 cm, and its wingspan is between 36 and 40 cm. Adults are snow-white on the belly, on the back and wings the pattern is dominated by large dark gray spots with a grayish to dirty-white border. On the white background of the head, neck and chest there is a pattern of dark longitudinal streaks, which on the flanks become transverse blotches. From the bill through the eye a dark gray line runs, a pale supraorbital stripe is noticeable, but not pronounced. The marsh sandpiper has a straight bill, which is black from the tip to the middle, toward the base dirty olive-green in color. Its long legs are also greenish.
During May and June the marsh sandpiper nests far to the north, on extensive marshes and grassy wetlands, in open waterlogged areas of boreal forests and in scrub between the tundra and taiga. The nest is most often concealed in dense vegetation right on the ground, sometimes it nests in trees in abandoned nests of other bird species. It is a pronounced migrant, which winters in more open areas, for example on floodplain meadows, wetlands and shores of inland lakes, as well as along streams and saline marshes on the coast.
The marsh sandpiper is a diurnal bird. During the breeding season it feeds mostly on animal-derived food, as it forages through shallow waters with its long bill, deftly picking aquatic beetles and true bugs and the larvae of other aquatic insects, especially mosquitoes and other two-winged insects. After breeding it includes more plant foods in its diet, for example seeds; from animals it hunts aquatic insects, crustaceans, mollusks, sometimes also a small fish.
It winters in the tropical part of Africa; here in our country it can most often be observed during migration, that is, spring and winter. Some individuals stay here also in summer, but most likely they do not nest here.
