Re: Red or Red-necked Phalaropes at AI

[Mark Stackhouse <mark at westwings dot com>]

Nice photos Carol, and a good find. The short, rather thick and 
blunt-tipped bill makes these birds Red Phalaropes. Also of note is the 
rather plain back (thought the dark feathers show that these birds are 
still in the molt). Red-necked Phalaropes have thinner, somewhat longer 
(but not much) bills that taper quite finely to a needle-like tip. The 
head markings could go either way, though Red-necked Phalarope tends to 
have a bit more dark across the top of the head. On the back, 
Red-necked Phalaropes have more whitish markings (they show a 
wing-stripe in flight) and a lees or the plain gray that both Red and 
Wilson's Phalaropes have.

Great sighting!

Mark

Mark Stackhouse
mark@westwings.com
801-487-9453 (Salt Lake City, Utah, USA)
011-52-323-285-1243 (San Blas, Nayarit, Mexico)

On Oct 10, 2005, at 6:16 PM, cldavis@xmission.com wrote:

> I Went to Antelope Island today to celebrate Columbus Day and it was 
> pretty
> slow until around 11:30 a.m. or so when I saw a large bird out of the
> corner of my eye at the Ranch and it was a GREAT HORNED OWL.  I don't 
> think
> I've seen one on the island EVER (even though they've been reported 
> many
> times). I even happened on him again in another tree later on.  This 
> one
> didn't fly off immediately and scare the bejeebers out of me like the
> LEO's.
> Also at Garr Ranch there was RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER, pine siskins,
> yellow-rumps, flickers, ruby-crowns, and a little wren with a faint 
> white
> line above the eye and a long tail (maybe house wren). I didn't get a 
> very
> long look.
> Along the causeway were the usual birds only much closer to shore now 
> that
> the guns are going off on the opposite shore.  Nice day to see ducks 
> and
> shorebirds.
> Now, near the Marina and memorial I saw two RED or RED-NECKED 
> PHALAROPES and
> I took some pictures if someone would like to tell me which they are.  
> There
> are five photos at:
> http://xmission.com/~cldavis/whatphalarope.html
>
> Carol
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