Red-Necked Phalarope
Phalaropus lobatus
Also known as: Northern Phalarope
Habitat
Aquatic
Diet
Invertebrate
Active Time
Diurnal
Size
37 g
About This Species
Watch for this small wader spinning in tight circles on open water, a feeding technique that stirs up invertebrates it then picks off the surface, quite unlike the probing behavior of most shorebirds. It breeds on Arctic tundra pools in summer and spends much of the rest of the year far offshore, so coastal migration stopovers, especially at saline lakes and estuaries, are the most reliable places to see it. Females are the more brightly colored sex here, a reversal worth noting when trying to sex individuals.
Ethical Viewing Guidelines
- Stopover and breeding sites are often traditional and heavily used, so keep well back from feeding or resting flocks rather than approaching for a closer look, since disturbance can force birds to burn energy they need for migration.
- Arctic-breeding shorebirds are protected under national wildlife statutes in most range states, including the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in North America, but enforcement and specific buffer distances vary by country.
- Where in doubt, watch from a distance with optics rather than walking toward the birds.
Seasonal Activity
540,104 sightings · 2000–2026
Citizen science records via GBIF
Classification
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Charadriiformes
- Family
- Scolopacidae
Traits
- Diet
- Invertebrate
- Foraging
- Aquatic
- Activity
- Diurnal
- Body mass
- 37 g
Photo
Wikimedia Commons / Wikimedia Commons
CC-BY-SA-4.0
Occurrence data from GBIF.