A Little Stint (Code 4) was found at the Charlestown Breachway tidal flats at 1 PM on July 4 by Carlos Pedro. Though this species has shown up in a number of nearby states, this is potentially a first state record for Rhode Island. Interestingly, a Lesser Sand-Plover was found at this site in 1999.
photos by Carlos Pedro
This is a developing story. Check the RIBIRDS email list for updates and this site for information about birding the Charlestown Breachway flats and directions.
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Little Stint is a casual vagrant, almost annual during spring and summer months, to both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and Alaska. It is accidental inland. It breeds mostly in Arctic regions from Norway east to New Siberian Island. The primary wintering areas include the Mediterranean and Africa, east to the Indian Subcontinent and Myanmar (The Shorebird Guide, O’Brien et al., Handbook of the Birds of the World, Volume 3).
Little Stints can be monogamous, polygynous, or polyandrous where they are loosely territorial with little or no fidelity to their breeding sites. More than a million birds are estimated to winter in eastern and northeastern Africa. In Norway, there has been little change in the number of breeding birds since the 19th century (Handbook of Birds of the World, Volume 3).
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UPDATE: The stint was not refound on July 5.