Family Sandpipers, Snipes, Phalaropes (Scolopacidae)

Least Concern

Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus)

Taxonomy

French: Phalarope à bec étroit German: Odinshühnchen Spanish: Falaropo picofino

Taxonomy:

Tringa tobata

[sic] Linnaeus

, 1758,

Hudson Bay, Canada

Sometimes placed in monospecific genus Lobipes. Monotypic.

Distribution:

Circumpolar, in coastal regions of Arctic Ocean, S to Aleutians and British Is. Winters pelagically off CW South America, in Arabian Sea and from C Indonesia to W Melanesia.

Descriptive notes

18–19 cm; 20–48 g; wingspan 32–41 cm. Smallest phalarope, with needle-like bill (19–23 mm long) and slender neck; toes lobed; wings 20% shorter than... read more

Voice

Song is a warbling or twittering sound, described as a continuous and rapidly repeated “... read more

Habitat

Breeds from coast to interior of Arctic, to lower latitudes than P. fulicarius; on tundra... read more

Food and feeding

During breeding season, chiefly insects, especially dipteran flies and their larvae, as well as beetles, caddisflies, ants and bugs; also... read more

Breeding

Lays Jun in Fennoscandia, or from mid May in North America, with evidence that breeding regimes are advancing in date in response to... read more

Movements

Migrates overland more than P. fulicarius and spends non-breeding season pelagically.... read more

Status and conservation

Not globally threatened (Least Concern). Total breeding population in Eurasia estimated at 500,000–1,000,000+ birds, with majority in Russia; Nearctic population... read more

Bibliography

Public comments

Recommended citation

Van Gils, J., Wiersma, P., Kirwan, G.M. & Garcia, E.F.J. (2020). Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from https://www.hbw.com/node/53945 on 24 February 2020).

Scientific classification

Class: Aves

Order: Charadriiformes

Family: Scolopacidae

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Sequence of species in this family is based largely on findings of a recent phylogenetic study#R.

Subfamily: Tringinae

Tribe: Phalaropodini

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Sometimes accorded family status, Phalaropodidae#R, but taxa involved appear to be sister to the remaining taxa in subfamily Tringinae#R.

Genus: Phalaropus Brisson, 1760

See full taxonomic structure and notes

News on this species

Geolocators confirm that the Red-necked Phalaropes nesting in Scandinavia winter in the Arabian Sea

The migration and wintering areas of phalaropes have been much debated. For the Scandinavian population of the Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus) a small number of ring recoveries in autumn indicated a south-eastern migration direction, strongly suggesting that these birds winter in the Arabian Sea. Geolocator tracking of several males caught during the breeding season in northern Sweden has confirmed these expectations#R. The phalaropes divided the c. 5500–7000 km migrations into two to four flights, staging for a few days in the Gulf of Finland or the southern Baltic Sea, and for up to a month at one or two locations in or near the Black and Caspian Seas.