Knot or Ash-colored or Red-breasted Sandpiper

“At their first arrival in autumn, when they are occasionally seen in great numbers in the same flock, their aerial evolutions are very beautiful, for, like our Parrakeet, Passenger Pigeon [both now extinct], Rice-bird, Red-winged Starling, and other birds, they follow each other in their course with a celerity that seems almost incomprehensible, when the individuals are so near each other that one might suppose it impossible for them to turn and wheel without interfering with each other.”

John James Audubon, Birds of America (New York: J.J. Audubon; Philadelphia: J. B. Chevalier, 1840-1844), vol. 5, p. 255-256.

View bird in National Audubon Society Field Guide for North American Birds.