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1 September 2016 An Interspecific Mixed Clutch of Semipalmated Sandpiper and Lapland Longspur Eggs
Christine M. Anderson, Fletcher M. Smith, Paul F. Woodard
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Abstract

Semipalmated Sandpipers (Calidris pusilla) and Lapland Longspurs (Calcarius lapponicus) share similar nesting habitat preferences on small islands in the Mackenzie River Delta, Northwest Territories, Canada. A Semipalmated Sandpiper was observed incubating a mixed clutch of its own eggs with two smaller eggs presumed to be from a Lapland Longspur. This is a unique combination of a precocial and an altricial species' eggs in the same nest. Possible explanations for the occurrence of this interspecific mixed clutch include nest parasitism, accidental laying, opportunistic egg dumping, or nest usurpation.

Christine M. Anderson, Fletcher M. Smith, and Paul F. Woodard "An Interspecific Mixed Clutch of Semipalmated Sandpiper and Lapland Longspur Eggs," Waterbirds 39(3), 323-326, (1 September 2016). https://doi.org/10.1675/063.039.0301
Received: 25 March 2016; Accepted: 1 April 2016; Published: 1 September 2016
KEYWORDS
breeding biology
Calcarius lapponicus
Calidris pusilla
eggs
Lapland Longspur
Mackenzie River Delta
mixed clutch
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