Breeding adults are dappled in brown, black, gold, and rufous above, with pale underparts and dark legs. The head, nape, and breast are stippled or streaked with brown, but the flanks are white. Nonbreeding adults are much plainer, mousy grayish brown above, pale below, with weak supercilium (pale line over eye).

The Semipalmated Sandpiper gets its common name from the short webs between its toes (“palmated” means webbed). The Western Sandpiper is the only other small sandpiper with similarly webbed toes.

The main difference is that the bill of Little Stints is more finely tapered with a much more pointy tip. Semipalmated Sandpipers do not have as tapered a bill as either of these two stint species. Therefore, it helps to eliminate that species quickly when you get good views of the bill.

These two shorebirds are small, behavior similarly, and often seem indistinguishable from a distance. Your biggest hint at distinguishing these two will be their legs. Least sandpipers have yellow-green legs, while semipalmated sandpipers have darker gray or black legs.