AnimalvsAnimal
Philomachus pugnaxRuffKampfläufer🐦

Photo: Wald1siedel · CC BY-SA 4.0

SpeciesCharadriiformesScolopacidae
Birds

🐦Ruff

Calidris pugnax (Linnaeus, 1758)

The ruff is a medium-sized wading bird that breeds in marshes and wet meadows across northern Eurasia. This highly gregarious sandpiper is migratory and sometimes forms huge flocks in its winter grounds, which include southern and western Europe, Africa, southern Asia and Australia.

Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Videos
None yet
Photos
2
Measurements
9
vs you
≈ 1/470th of your weight
Conservation status
LCLeast concern

IUCN Red List assessment, 2025.

Population trendDecreasing
Key measurements
Body mass
0.13 kg
Body length
not recorded
Shoulder height
not recorded
Top speed
not recorded
Bite force
not recorded
Maximum lifespan
not recorded
All measurements ↓
Facts and figures

Everything we know about the Ruff

Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.

Body mass
0.13 kg
AVONET
Other figures ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

By sex

  • Male170 kgWikidataQ28122714
  • Female102 kgWikidataQ28122714
Tail length
0.06 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Wing length
0.16 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Beak length
0.04 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Tarsus length
0.04 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Trophic level
Carnivore
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Habitat
Wetland
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Lifestyle
Terrestrial
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Volume l
0.1 Laverage
Details ↓

Body mass at ~1.0 kg/L, the density of vertebrate tissue.

average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.

Not recorded for Ruff yet: body length, shoulder height, top speed, bite force, maximum lifespan.

Where it sits

Family tree

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. ›phylumChordata
  3. ›classAves
  4. ›orderCharadriiformes
  5. ›familyScolopacidae
  6. ›genusCalidris
  7. ›speciesCalidris pugnax
Full lineage
  1. superclassTetrapoda
  2. orderSauria
  3. classBirds · Aves
  4. familyScolopacidae
All 10 branches ↓
  1. kingdomMetazoa
  2. phylumChordata
  3. subphylumCraniata
  4. subphylumVertebrata
  5. superclassGnathostomata
  6. superclassSarcopterygii
  7. superclassTetrapoda
  8. orderSauria
  9. classBirds · Aves
  10. familyScolopacidae
More

More about the Ruff

In other languages
batalion (pl), brushane (sv), Calidris pugnax (de), Philomachus pugnax (pt), kemphaan (nl), Gaidukas (lt) … and 27 more languages
More photos
Philomachus pugnaxRuffKampfläuferBasai Wetland Gurgaon DSC9289 ruff
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