Long-toed Stint

1. Proportionally long toes that project beyond the tail in flight

2. Slender build with a long neck and legs, and a short, thin dark bill with a pale base

3. Rufous crown and prominent white eyebrow in breeding adults; juveniles have bright rufous and white streaks above

Long-toed Stints breed in isolated pairs in the subarctic wetlands of Siberia and eastern Russia, nesting near pools or boggy tundra with moss, sedges, and dwarf willows. They migrate thousands of kilometers to spend the non-breeding season in Southeast Asia and Australia. Their diet includes insects, small crustaceans, molluscs, amphibians, and seeds, which they pick from the surface or shallow water by pecking rather than probing. Females lay 3–5 eggs in a ground scrape lined with grass or leaves, usually under a shrub near water. Both parents share incubation (18–22 days), but only the male tends the brood after hatching.

Long-toed Stints are most often found in inland freshwater wetlands, rice fields, sewage farms, and the vegetated edges of shallow lakes and swamps across Australia during the non-breeding season (August to April). They prefer areas with good vegetation cover and are rarely seen on open mudflats, often feeding among emergent plants or in muddy margins.