Birdpass
English
Wilson's Phalarope

Wilson's Phalarope

Phalaropus tricolor

Identify the Wilson's Phalarope by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.

  • Download on the App Store
  • Get it on Google Play

Wilson's Phalarope is the largest phalarope, a slim wader with lobed toes and a fine, needle-like black bill. It breeds on prairie wetlands of western Canada and the western United States and winters on salt lakes in the Andes of South America. Unusually tame, it has reversed sex roles, with larger, brighter females courting the males. It is a rare vagrant to Europe.

Did you know?

  • Females leave on migration soon after laying, leaving males to incubate.
  • It feeds walking on mud more than other phalaropes.

About the species

Identification

The largest phalarope (about 23 cm), clearly larger and longer-billed than Red-necked Phalarope. In summer the sexes differ: the female is larger and more striking, with a black stripe through the eye and down the neck and a chestnut wash; winter plumage is plain grey above and white below, without a dark eye patch. In flight it shows a white rump and no wing bar. It also feeds by spinning in small circles.

Family

Scolopacidae

Size

Medium (thrush)

Colours

grey, white, orange, black

About the habitat

Breeds on shallow prairie marshes and lakes; on migration and in winter saline lakes, including high Andean salt lakes.

Diet

Mainly small aquatic insects and crustaceans, such as brine shrimps, picked from the surface or from the whirlpools it creates while spinning in shallow, salty water.

Behaviour

Highly migratory, gathering in huge numbers on salt lakes on passage. It often spins in circles to concentrate prey but also feeds walking on mud. Females court and defend mates and leave soon after laying; males incubate the eggs in a ground nest near water, and the young feed themselves.

Sources

Photo: VJAnderson, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wilson's Phalarope, Oregon 03 (cropped).jpg

Text: Wikipedia (English), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilson%27s_phalarope

See also