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Red Phalarope | Phalaropus fulicarius
Rosse franjepoot | Falaropo picogrueso
The Red Phalarope is a swimming wader that lives almost exclusively on the open sea outside the breeding season. It breeds on the Arctic tundra and winters in cold, productive seas, including off the Pacific coast of Baja California and western Mexico. As in all phalaropes the female is larger and more brightly coloured, and the male incubates the eggs.
Voice
At sea a short, high peek or tweet, mainly in flight and from flocks.
Recording: Avery Bartels — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
20–22 cm, somewhat stockier than the other phalaropes, with a shorter, thicker bill and lobed toes. In non-breeding plumage, the one almost always seen in the guide area, plain pale grey above and white below, with a white head, a dark crown patch and a black patch extending back from the eye; the bill is then black, sometimes with a yellowish base. In flight a broad white wing bar. The breeding female is deep chestnut-red below, with a white cheek patch, a black crown and a yellow bill with a black tip; the male is duller. Juveniles still have dark, pale-fringed back feathers in autumn. It sits high and light on the water.
Confusion species
Red-necked Phalarope Phalaropus lobatus is smaller and finer, with a thinner, needle-like bill, a darker grey back with pale stripes and a narrower wing bar. Wilson's Phalarope Phalaropus tricolor has a long needle bill, no wing bar and no black eye patch, and is seldom seen at sea. Sanderling Calidris alba has a similar non-breeding plumage but does not swim and runs along the surf.
Habitat
Open sea over and beyond the continental shelf, especially along fronts and upwelling zones where plankton accumulates; often in flocks, sometimes among floating seaweed. It spins while swimming to bring prey to the surface. After storms sometimes on the coast, in harbours or on inland waters.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Winter visitor and passage migrant off the Pacific coast, most numerous off Baja California and western Mexico; further south, off Central America, mainly a passage migrant far offshore. Rare in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Outside the guide area the species breeds on the tundra of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Svalbard and Siberia and winters mainly at sea off the west coasts of South America and Africa.
- Winter visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
From boats far off the coast of Baja California and western Mexico flocks can be seen on the water in winter; from land mainly after sustained onshore winds. At sea it differs from Red-necked Phalarope in its paler, plain grey back and thicker bill.
Conservation status
Not threatened. The world population is large, but because the species lives at sea, trends are difficult to follow. Oil pollution and changes in food supply at sea are possible threats.
Scientific name
Phalaropus fulicarius | (Linnaeus, 1758)
Linnaeus described the species in 1758 as Tringa fulicaria; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Phalaropus was introduced in 1760 by Brisson. Phalaropus comes through French phalarope from Greek phalaris 'coot' and pous 'foot': like coots, phalaropes have lobed toes. fulicarius derives from Latin fulica 'coot', for those same lobed toes. The specimen the first description was based on came from Hudson Bay.