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Wilson's Phalarope | Phalaropus tricolor
Grote franjepoot | Falaropo tricolor
The largest and most terrestrial phalarope, a North American wader of prairie lakes that winters in South America. In the region it is a very rare vagrant, with a handful of records in Morocco and single birds from Tunisia to Oman and the Emirates.
Voice
Usually silent away from the breeding grounds; at most a low, nasal wurk or soft chew.
Recording: Aluisio Ribeiro — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
A slender, long-necked wader with a small head, a needle-fine black bill and fairly long legs (black in summer, yellow in winter). In winter plumage pale grey above and bright white below, with a faint grey eye-stripe running back from the eye to the neck side. The breeding female is boldly marked, with a black stripe from the eye down the neck merging into chestnut, a grey crown and white throat; the male is duller. In flight a plain grey wing without a wingbar and a white rump. Often feeds walking on the shore and spins rapidly when swimming.
Confusion species
Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus) and Red Phalarope (Phalaropus fulicarius) are smaller and stockier, with a clear white wingbar, a dark rump and in winter plumage a black eye patch. Marsh Sandpiper (Tringa stagnatilis) is larger, with a white back wedge and longer greenish legs. Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes), also an American vagrant, has a spotted back and longer yellow legs.
Habitat
Shallow salt pans, salt lakes and lagoons, also treatment ponds and flooded fields; feeds both swimming and walking along the water's edge.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the habitats of North Africa and the Middle East.
Range and movements
In Morocco a handful of records, mainly on the Atlantic coast, such as a first-summer at the mouth of the Oued Massa in March 1988; by around 2006 the tally stood at five. In Tunisia one record: an adult female in the Thyna salt pans near Sfax on 22 April 2024. In Oman two twentieth-century records and in the Emirates one, at Al Wathba near Abu Dhabi from 3 to 10 January 2010. Not reliably recorded elsewhere in the region. Breeds on the prairies and in western North America and winters on the salt lakes of the Andes and the pampas of South America; regularly wanders to western Europe.
How and when to look
Always check phalaropes on salt pans and treatment ponds carefully: a strikingly long, slim bird that walks more than it swims and shows no white wingbar may be this species. The Atlantic wetlands of Morocco and the salt pans of Sfax are the most obvious sites.
Conservation status
Not globally threatened, but in North America it depends on a small number of large salt lakes as staging sites, which are becoming saltier and drying out through water extraction. In the region it is a vagrant that does not originate from the region itself; the predominance of Moroccan records fits the country's Atlantic position.
Scientific name
Phalaropus tricolor | (Vieillot, 1819)
Vieillot described the species in 1819 as Steganopus tricolor; 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. tricolor is Latin for 'three-coloured'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Paraguay.