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Add alternate names, citing Avibase, use as well for alternate scientific names (source also verifies Linnaeus and 1758)
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| range_map = Phalaropus lobatus distribution.png
| range_map = Phalaropus lobatus distribution.png
| range_map_caption = Range of ''P. lobatus'' {{leftlegend|#D31111|Breeding range|outline=gray}}{{leftlegend|#3B1BC6|Wintering range|outline=gray}}
| range_map_caption = Range of ''P. lobatus'' {{leftlegend|#D31111|Breeding range|outline=gray}}{{leftlegend|#3B1BC6|Wintering range|outline=gray}}
| synonyms = *''Tringa lobata'' {{small|Linnaeus, 1758}}
| synonyms = *''Tringa lobata'' and ''Lobipes lobatus'' {{small|Linnaeus,&nbsp;1758}}<ref name="Avibase">{{Cite web|url=https://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/species.jsp?avibaseid=E6F3BA54577746FB|title=Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus) - Avibase|website=avibase.bsc-eoc.org|access-date=2020-10-19}}</ref>
}}
}}


The '''red-necked phalarope''' (''Phalaropus lobatus'') is a small [[wader]]. This [[phalarope]] breeds in the [[Arctic]] regions of North America and [[Palearctic|Eurasia]]. It is [[bird migration|migratory]], and, unusually for a wader, winters at sea on tropical oceans.
The '''red-necked phalarope''' (''Phalaropus lobatus''), also known as the '''northern phalarope''' and '''hyperborean phalarope''',<ref name="Avibase" /> is a small [[wader]]. This [[phalarope]] breeds in the [[Arctic]] regions of North America and [[Palearctic|Eurasia]]. It is [[bird migration|migratory]], and, unusually for a wader, winters at sea on tropical oceans.


==Taxonomy==
==Taxonomy==

Revision as of 17:17, 19 October 2020

Red-necked phalarope
Breeding plumage
Winter plumage
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Scolopacidae
Genus: Phalaropus
Species:
P. lobatus
Binomial name
Phalaropus lobatus
Range of P. lobatus
  Breeding range
  Wintering range
Synonyms
  • Tringa lobata and Lobipes lobatus Linnaeus, 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.

Taxonomy

The red-necked phalarope was one of the many bird species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, where it was given the binomial name Tringa lobata.[3] It has also been known as the northern phalarope.[4] The English and genus names for phalaropes 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 New Latin for lobed, for the same reason. This bird was described in 1750 as the "Coot-footed Tringa".[5][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[4][7]
length 170–200 mm (6.5–8 in)
weight 35 g (1.2 oz)
wingspan 380 mm (15 in)
wing 101–106.5 mm (3.98–4.19 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)

Ecology

Breeding

Eggs, from the Museum Wiesbaden

The typical avian sex roles are reversed 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

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.[4] 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.

Red-necked phalarope

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 the Shetland Isles, 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.[8]

References

  1. ^ BirdLife International (2012). "Phalaropus lobatus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2013. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  2. ^ a b "Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus) - Avibase". avibase.bsc-eoc.org. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
  3. ^ Linnaeus, Carl (1758). Systema Naturae per Regna Tria Naturae, Secundum Classes, Ordines, Genera, Species, cum Characteribus, Differentiis, Synonymis, Locis (in Latin). Vol. Vol. I (10th revised ed.). Holmiae: (Laurentii Salvii). p. 148 – via The Internet Archive. {{cite book}}: |volume= has extra text (help)
  4. ^ a b c Godfrey, W. Earl (1966). The Birds of Canada. Ottawa: National Museum of Canada. p. 169.
  5. ^ "Phalarope". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  6. ^ Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. pp. 229, 301. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  7. ^ Sibley, David Allen (2000). The Sibley Guide to Birds. New York: Knopf. p. 195. ISBN 978-0-679-45122-8.
  8. ^ 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
  • Reynolds, John D. (1987). "Mating system and nesting biology of the Red-necked Phalarope Phalaropus lobatus: what constrains polyandry?". Ibis. 129 (Supplement S1): 225–242. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1987.tb03203.x.