Comments:
Our photo this month shows 4 birds – 3 in flight and 1 in water but
just about to take off. The water is an obvious clue and we can
eliminate most birds based on that alone. Structurally these birds are
obviously not gulls or terns, so hopefully everybody can recognize
them to be shorebirds. The plumage on all 4 birds is a combination of
black, gray, and white. There are not a lot of shorebirds that have
this color pattern in any season. Phalaropes are really the only
choice.
In Utah we have recorded all 3 species of
phalarope. Wilson’s breed here and are common in marshes during the
summer. Red-necked are common migrants during spring and fall
migration. Red Phalarope are very rare in Utah, mostly showing up in
the fall or early winter months.
All 3 species are very colorful in summer, so it
is safe to say that these birds are in nonbreeding plumage. Wilson’s
are light but solid gray on their backs and lack the prominent black
cheek or eye stripe shown by the birds in the photo. In flight
Wilson’s show a white rump and don’t have any wing bar like the birds
in the photo. If there is still any doubt, the legs of the birds in
the photo are black and nonbreeding Wilson’s have yellow legs. That
leaves us Red and Red-necked. Both Red and
Red-necked (and the birds in the photo) have an obvious wing bar in
flight, a dark patch on the cheek, and a dark line separating an
otherwise white rump. However, Red Phalaropes are a pale gray on the
back and lack any streaking. Our birds show a lot of streaking on the
back, especially visible on the 2 birds on the right. Red Phalaropes
also have mostly white underwings, but from what we can see in the
photo these underwings appear more dark than white. One more
characteristic is the bill size. Reds have a relatively short and
stubby bill, while Red-necked have a long and thin bill. We can’t see
the bills on 3 of the 4 birds in the photo, but the one we can see
appears long and thin. I photographed these
Red-Necked Phalarope along the Antelope Island Causeway in mid
September.
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