red-backed sandpiper
nounDefinition of red-backed sandpiper
: a widely distributed rather small sandpiper (Erolia alpina) that is typically cinnamon to rusty brown above, often variously streaked or marked with black (as on the abdomen), and largely white below, has a long and downcurved bill, breeds in northern or artic regions, and winters chiefly in the southern U.S. and around the Mediterranean
— called also dunlin