Purple Sandpiper

Calidris maritima

It looks plain gray until the light catches a faint purple gloss on its back, which gave it its name. Its scientific name, maritima, means 'of the sea,' for the wave-splashed rocks where it spends the winter.

Calidris comes from kalidris, Aristotle's word for some gray waterside birds. Maritima is Latin, from mare, 'sea.'