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Common Redshank

Common Redshank

Tringa totanus

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The Common Redshank is a widespread Eurasian wader with bright red legs and a red, black-tipped bill. It is mottled brown above and in flight shows a white wedge up the back and a broad white trailing edge to the wings. It breeds in wetlands from salt marshes to wet meadows across temperate Eurasia and winters on coasts from western Europe and the Mediterranean to South Asia. It is famously noisy and wary – the “sentinel of the marshes”.

Did you know?

  • Its alarm calls alert other birds, earning it the name “warden of the marshes”.
  • Vagrants have reached as far as Micronesia and South America.

Voice

Song
Flight call

About the species

Identification

Recognised by its bright red legs and red-based, dark-tipped bill. The plumage is mottled brown; in flight a white rump and back wedge and a broad white trailing edge to the wing show. Young birds have yellowish legs. The call is a loud “tew-hu” and, in alarm, a repeated “kip-kip-kip”. It differs from Spotted Redshank in its shorter bill and white wing edge.

Family

Scolopacidae

Size

Medium (thrush)

Colours

brown, white, grey, red

About the habitat

Salt marshes, wet meadows, coastal grasslands, bogs and marshes for breeding; mudflats, estuaries and coasts outside the breeding season.

Diet

Mainly small invertebrates – worms, crustaceans, molluscs and insects – picked or probed from mud, sand and wet vegetation; also small fish and tadpoles.

Behaviour

An alert, vocal sentinel that gives loud, piping alarm calls, warning other birds. Males perform musical display flights over the breeding grounds. It nests on the ground in grass tussocks, often at high densities or among gull colonies, and lays 3–5 eggs; the chicks leave the nest soon after hatching and are fiercely guarded.

Sources

Photo: Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Common redshank (Tringa totanus) breeding Marken.jpg

Sound: Pascal Christe, XC466471, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/466471

Sound: Sonothèque ADVL, XC949954, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/949954

Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions + Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0; Wikipedia: CC BY-SA 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_redshank

See also