Great Knot | Calidris tenuirostris

Voice

Rather silent on the wintering grounds; gives a soft, double nyut-nyut or kurr-kurr, a little lower than Red Knot.

Identification

Clearly larger and longer-bodied than Red Knot, with a fairly long black bill slightly decurved towards the tip, a relatively small head and short greyish-green legs. In winter plumage grey above with dark shaft streaks, and white below with conspicuous dark spots on the breast extending onto the flanks. In breeding plumage the breast is densely spotted black, with bold black chevrons on the flanks, and the scapulars show rufous spots. In flight a rather white rump contrasting with the dark tail, and a narrow wingbar.

Confusion species

Red Knot (Calidris canutus) is smaller and rounder, with a shorter, straight bill, a more finely streaked breast and a greyer rump; in breeding plumage brick-red below rather than spotted black. A grey winter Great Knot among Red Knots is often noticed only by its longer bill and long rear end. Bar-tailed Godwit (Limosa lapponica) is much larger, with longer legs and a long, slightly upturned bill.

Habitat

Extensive tidal flats and muddy sandbanks, often near seagrass beds; at high tide it roosts on sandbanks, islets and bare coastal flats, often in mixed flocks with Red Knots and Bar-Tailed Godwits.

Range and movements

In Oman, Barr al Hikman holds by far the largest Arabian wintering population, with up to just over 1,200 birds in February 1996; elsewhere in Oman it is a vagrant, and most birds have left by mid-March. In the Emirates it has been regular since 1986 in small numbers from November to early April, mainly at Khor al Beida (Umm al Qaiwain); at Marawah in Abu Dhabi over 600 were counted in September 1994, and Balghelam Island turned out to be a new wintering site. In Kuwait a very scarce winter visitor since 2004 (at most 19 birds), in Qatar a vagrant (first record in 2008) and in eastern Saudi Arabia very scarce, with a few records from 1984–1991. From Bahrain, Iraq, Yemen, North Africa and the Levant it is barely or not known. Beyond the region it breeds in the montane tundra of north-east Siberia and winters mainly in Australia and South-East Asia, with smaller numbers around the Bay of Bengal, in Pakistan and on Iran's Gulf coast.

• Winter visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
• dark = core range, pale = thinly spread

How and when to look

The best chance is from December to February at Khor al Beida in the Emirates or on the flats of Barr al Hikman in Oman, around high tide when waders roost closely packed. Look among the Red Knots and Bar-Tailed Godwits for a larger, long-billed bird with a black-spotted breast. In 2017 a colour-ringed bird at Khor al Beida turned out to have been ringed in Kamchatka: the first direct link between the Russian Far East and the Middle East.

Conservation status

Endangered. The global population has fallen steeply in a few decades, mainly through the loss of tidal flats around the Yellow Sea, the key staging area on migration. The small Arabian wintering population depends on a handful of coastal sites; in the Emirates these are under pressure from coastal development and island construction, and Barr al Hikman is of great importance as a nature reserve.

Scientific name

Calidris tenuirostris | (Horsfield, 1821)

Horsfield described the species in 1821 as Totanus tenuirostris; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Calidris was introduced in 1804 by Merrem. Calidris goes back to Ancient Greek kalidris or skalidris, a name Aristotle used for an unidentified grey waterside bird. tenuirostris is Latin, from tenuis 'slender' and rostrum 'bill'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Java.