purple sandpiper

noun

1. a sandpiper, Calidris maritima, of Arctic regions of the New and Old World, having in winter a slate-gray back with purplish reflections.

Word History and Origins

Origin of purple sandpiper¹

First recorded in 1815–25

Example Sentences

This purple sandpiper is not afraid of water and DGAF.

From The Verge

The Purple Sandpiper is described as being far less common than the Dunlin, and differing from it in habits, inasmuch as it resorts to the rocky coast in preference to sandy flats.

From Project Gutenberg

According to Mr. Dunn, 'The Purple Sandpiper is very numerous in Orkney and Shetland, appearing early in spring, and leaving again at the latter end of April; about which time it collects in large flocks, and may be found on the rocks at ebb-tide, watching each retiring wave, running down as the water falls back, picking small shellfish off the stones, and displaying great activity in escaping the advancing sea.

From Project Gutenberg

And do you know that when they got home he actually showed her a piece in the "Hertfordshire Naturalist" which they took in to oblige a friend of theirs, all about rare birds found in the neighbourhood, all the most outlandish names, aunt says, that she had never heard or thought of, and uncle had the impudence to say that it must have been a Purple Sandpiper, which, the paper said, had "a low shrill note, constantly repeated."

From Project Gutenberg

The purple sandpiper lays its four or five eggs in a pretty little nest of dry straw on open grassy or mossy plains a little distance from the sea.

From Project Gutenberg