Red-necked phalarope

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Red-necked phalarope
Red-necked Phalarope.jpg
Breeding plumage
Red-necked Phalarope winter plumage.jpg
Winter plumage
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Scolopacidae
Genus: Phalaropus
Species:
P. lobatus
Binomial name
Phalaropus lobatus
Phalaropus lobatus distribution.png
Range of P. lobatus
  Breeding range
  Wintering range
Synonyms
  • Tringa lobata and Lobipes lobatusLinnaeus, 1758 [2]

The red-necked phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus), also known as the northern phalarope and hyperborean phalarope, [2] is a small wader. This phalarope breeds in the Arctic regions of North America and Eurasia. It is migratory, and, unusually for a wader, winters at sea on tropical oceans.

Contents

Taxonomy

Phalaropus lobatus - Red-necked Phalarope (song)

In 1743, the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the red-necked phalarope in the first volume of his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds. He used the English name "The coot-footed tringa". Edwards based his hand-coloured etching on a specimen that had been collected off the coast of Maryland. [3] When in 1758, the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the tenth edition, he placed the red-necked phalarope with the phalaropes and sandpipers in the genus Tringa . Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Tringa lobata and cited Edwards' work. [4] The red-necked phalarope is now placed in the genus Phalaropus that was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760. [5] [6] The English and genus names come through French phalarope and scientific Latin Phalaropus from Ancient Greek phalaris, "coot", and pous, "foot". Coots and phalaropes both have lobed toes. The specific lobatus is Neo-Latin for "lobed". [7] [8] The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. [6]

Description

The red-necked phalarope is about 18 cm (7.1 in) in length, with lobed toes and a straight, fine bill. The breeding female is predominantly dark grey above, with a chestnut neck and upper breast, black face and white throat. They have a white wing stripe which helps distinguish this bird from the similar Wilson's phalarope. The breeding male is a duller version of the female. They have lobed toes to assist with their swimming. Young birds are grey and brown above, with buff underparts and a black patch through the eye. In winter, the plumage is essentially grey above and white below, but the black eyepatch is always present. They have a sharp call described as a whit or twit.

Standard measurements [9] [10]
Total Body Length 170–200 mm (6.5–8 in)
Weight 35 g (1.2 oz)
Wingspan 380 mm (15 in)
Wing 101–106.5 mm (4.0–4.2 in)
Tail 45–51 mm (1.8–2.0 in)
Culmen 20.2–23.5 mm (0.80–0.93 in)
Tarsus 19.8–21.6 mm (0.78–0.85 in)

Behaviour and ecology

Breeding

Eggs, from the Museum Wiesbaden Phalaropus lobatus MWNH 0244.JPG
Eggs, from the Museum Wiesbaden

In the three phalarope species, females are larger and more brightly coloured than males. The females pursue and fight over males, and will defend their mate from other females until the clutch is complete and the male begins incubation. The males perform all incubation and chick-rearing activities, while the females may attempt to find another mate. If a male loses his eggs to predation, he may re-pair with his original mate or a new female to try again. Once it becomes too late in the breeding season to start new nests, females begin their southward migration, leaving the males to incubate the eggs and look after the young.

Chick Redneckedphalaropechick.jpg
Chick

The nest is a grass-lined depression at the top of a small mound. Clutch size is usually four splotchy olive-buff eggs, but can be fewer. Incubation is about 20 days. [9] The young mainly feed themselves and are able to fly within 20 days of hatching.

Feeding

When feeding, a red-necked phalarope will often swim in a small, rapid circle, forming a small whirlpool. This behaviour is thought to aid feeding by raising food from the bottom of shallow water. The bird will reach into the centre of the vortex with its bill, plucking small insects or crustaceans caught up therein. On the open ocean, they are often found where converging currents produce upwellings. During migration, some flocks stop over on the open waters at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy to take advantage of food stirred up by tidal action.

Migration

Almost all of the nonbreeding season is spent in open water. As this species rarely comes into contact with humans, it can be unusually tame.

Status

The red-necked phalarope is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.

Mating Phalaropus lobatus copula-pjt.jpg
Mating

In Britain and Ireland

The red-necked phalarope is a rare and localised breeding species in Ireland and Britain, which lie on the extreme edge of its world range. The most reliable place for them is Shetland, particularly the Loch of Funzie on Fetlar, with a few birds breeding elsewhere in Scotland in the Outer Hebrides (e.g. at Loch na Muilne, where a "phalarope watchpoint" has been set up) and sometimes the Scottish Mainland in Ross-shire or Sutherland. They have also bred in western Ireland since about 1900, where the population reached a peak of about 50 pairs. There have been very few breeding records in Ireland since the 1970s, but breeding was reported from County Mayo in 2015, involving a male and three females.

The tracking of a tagged bird from Fetlar unexpectedly revealed that it wintered with a North American population in the tropical Pacific Ocean; it took a 16,000 mi (26,000 km) round trip across the Atlantic via Iceland and Greenland, then south down the Eastern seaboard of America, across the Caribbean and Mexico, before ending up off the coast of Ecuador and Peru. For this reason, it is suspected that the Shetland population could be an offshoot of a North American population rather than the geographically closer Scandinavian population that is believed to winter in the Arabian Sea. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phalarope</span> Genus of birds

A phalarope is any of three living species of slender-necked shorebirds in the genus Phalaropus of the bird family Scolopacidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandpiper</span> Family of birds

Scolopacidae is a large family of shorebirds, or waders, which mainly includes many species known as sandpipers, but also others such as woodcocks, curlews and snipes. The majority of these species eat small invertebrates picked out of the mud or soil. Different lengths of bills enable different species to feed in the same habitat, particularly on the coast, without direct competition for food.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Common redshank</span> Species of bird

The common redshank or simply redshank is a Eurasian wader in the large family Scolopacidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black-winged stilt</span> Species of bird

The black-winged stilt is a widely distributed, very long-legged wader in the avocet and stilt family Recurvirostridae. Its scientific name, Himantopus himantopus, is sometimes used to generalize a single, almost cosmopolitan species. Alternatively, it is restricted to the form that is widespread in Europe, Asia and Africa, which equals the nominate group of H. himantopussensu lato. Meanwhile, the black-necked and white-backed stilts both inhabit the Americas; the pied stilt ranges from Australasia and New Zealand. Today, most sources accept between one and four actual species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Green sandpiper</span> Species of bird

The green sandpiper is a small wader (shorebird) of the Old World.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eurasian curlew</span> Species of bird

The Eurasian curlew or common curlew is a very large wader in the family Scolopacidae. It is one of the most widespread of the curlews, breeding across temperate Europe and Asia. In Europe, this species is often referred to just as the "curlew", and in Scotland known as the "whaup" in Scots.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grey plover</span> Species of bird

The grey plover or black-bellied plover is a large plover breeding in Arctic regions. It is a long-distance migrant, with a nearly worldwide coastal distribution when not breeding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lesser yellowlegs</span> Species of medium-sized shorebird

The lesser yellowlegs is a medium-sized shorebird. It breeds in the boreal forest region of North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Common sandpiper</span> Species of bird

The common sandpiper is a small Palearctic wader. This bird and its American sister species, the spotted sandpiper, make up the genus Actitis. They are parapatric and replace each other geographically; stray birds of either species may settle down with breeders of the other and hybridize. Hybridization has also been reported between the common sandpiper and the green sandpiper, a basal species of the closely related genus Tringa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wood sandpiper</span> Species of bird

The wood sandpiper is a small wader belonging to the sandpiper family Scolopacidae. A Eurasian species, it is the smallest of the shanks, a genus of mid-sized, long-legged waders that largely inhabit freshwater and wetland environments, as opposed to the maritime or coastal habitats of other, similar species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black-tailed godwit</span> Species of bird

The black-tailed godwit is a large, long-legged, long-billed shorebird first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. It is a member of the godwit genus, Limosa. There are four subspecies, all with orange head, neck and chest in breeding plumage and dull grey-brown winter coloration, and distinctive black and white wingbar at all times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red phalarope</span> Species of bird

The red phalarope or grey phalarope is a small wader. This phalarope breeds in the Arctic regions of North America and Eurasia. It is migratory, and, unusually for a wader, migrates mainly on oceanic routes, wintering at sea on tropical oceans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilson's phalarope</span> Species of bird

Wilson's phalarope is a small wader. This bird, the largest of the phalaropes, breeds in the prairies of North America in western Canada and the western United States. It is migratory, wintering in inland salt lakes near the Andes in Argentina. They are passage migrants through Central America around March/April and again during September/October. The species is a rare vagrant to western Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruff (bird)</span> Species of bird

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eurasian dotterel</span> Species of bird

The Eurasian dotterel, also known in Europe as just dotterel, is a small wader in the plover family of birds. It is the only species placed in the genus Eudromias.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African jacana</span> Species of bird

The African jacana is a wader in the family Jacanidae. It has long toes and long claws that enables it to walk on floating vegetation in shallow lakes, its preferred habitat. It is widely distributed in sub-Saharan Africa. For the origin and pronunciation of the name, see Jacanidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wattled jacana</span> Species of bird

The wattled jacana is a wader in the family Jacanidae found throughout much of South America east of the Andes, as well as western Panama and Trinidad. It is the only species in the Jacanidae family with such a large distribution. Wattled jacanas have long toes and claws which help them walk through aquatic vegetation. Like the majority of species of jacanas, the female is larger than the male, and forms harems of up to 4 or 5 males at any given time. There is also a major difference in proportional development or ornamentation and defense relative to body size when compared to males.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern jacana</span> Species of bird

The northern jacana or northern jaçana is a wader which is known as a resident breeder from coastal Mexico to western Panama, and on Cuba, Jamaica and Hispaniola in the Caribbean. It sometimes known to breed in Texas, United States, and has also been recorded on several occasions as a vagrant in Arizona. The jacanas are a group of wetland birds, which are identifiable by their huge feet and claws, which enable them to walk on floating vegetation in the shallow lakes that are their preferred habitat. In Jamaica, this bird is also known as the 'Jesus bird', as it appears to walk on water.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hooded plover</span> Species of bird

The hooded plover or hooded dotterel is a species of bird in the family Charadriidae. It is endemic to southern Australia, where it inhabits ocean beaches and subcoastal lagoons.

References

  1. BirdLife International (2019). "Phalaropus lobatus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2019: e.T22693490A155525960. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22693490A155525960.en . Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  2. 1 2 "Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus) - Avibase". avibase.bsc-eoc.org. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
  3. Edwards, George (1743). A Natural History of Uncommon Birds. Vol. Part 1. London: Printed for the author at the College of Physicians. p. 46, Plate 46.
  4. Linnaeus, Carl (1758). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1 (10th ed.). Holmiae (Stockholm): Laurentii Salvii. p. 148. On page 148 Linnaeus spells the specific epithet as tobata. He corrects this to lobata on page 824.
  5. Brisson, Mathurin Jacques (1760). Ornithologie, ou, Méthode Contenant la Division des Oiseaux en Ordres, Sections, Genres, Especes & leurs Variétés (in French and Latin). Paris: Jean-Baptiste Bauche. Vol. 1, p. 50, Vol. 6, p. 12.
  6. 1 2 Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (July 2021). "Sandpipers, snipes, coursers". IOC World Bird List Version 11.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 1 November 2021.
  7. "Phalarope" . Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press.(Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  8. Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. pp.  229, 301. ISBN   978-1-4081-2501-4.
  9. 1 2 Godfrey, W. Earl (1966). The Birds of Canada. Ottawa: National Museum of Canada. p. 169.
  10. Sibley, David Allen (2000). The Sibley Guide to Birds . New York: Knopf. p.  195. ISBN   978-0-679-45122-8.
  11. Smith, Malcolm; Bolton, Mark; Okill, David J.; Summers, Ron W.; Ellis, Pete; Liechti, Felix; Wilson, Jeremy D. (2014). "Geolocator tagging reveals Pacific migration of Red-necked Phalarope Phalaropus lobatus breeding in Scotland". Ibis. 156 (4): 870–873. doi:10.1111/ibi.12196.

Further reading

Pribilof Islands, Alaska Red-necked phalarope on St. Paul by Ryan Deregnier USFWS.jpg
Pribilof Islands, Alaska