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Red-necked Phalarope
PHALAROPE À BEC ÉTROIT
Phalaropus lobatus (Linnaeus)
Fairly common migrant; breeds in
the extreme north.
The Red-necked Phalarope is
distinctly smaller than the Wilson’s, with a shorter bill and a distinctive
brick-red neck-patch. It is also more aquatic, with larger lobes on its toes to
facilitate swimming. When feeding it often uses the “phalarope spin”, twirling
in tight circles to generate a vortex that draws invertebrate prey up to the
surface, though on occasion it swims and pecks seemingly at random.
Most Canadian-breeding Red-necked
Phalaropes winter off the coast of Peru in the plankton-rich Humboldt Current.
Spring migrants have been recorded in southern Manitoba as early as 7 May, but
most pass through in the second half of May and the first week of June. They
pause at marshes, potholes, and sewage lagoons, often mingling with Wilson’s
Phalaropes. Flocks usually number fewer than 20 birds, and most occur west of
the Red River valley. High counts of 50–100 Red-necked Phalaropes have been
recorded near Oak Hammock Marsh between 24 May and 1 June. Peak migration is
between late May and mid-June at Churchill, where flocks in the hundreds are
not unusual, and 800+ were counted along Hydro Road on 31 May 1995.1
Females usually precede males by a few days, though some birds pair up during
migration.2
Red-necked Phalaropes breed from
near the treeline northward to the southern Arctic Archipelago. Populations
fluctuate according to the timing of spring melt, more birds remaining in the
southern part of the breeding range when spring is delayed.3 During
the breeding season, groups of 2–10 birds are dispersed widely at tundra ponds,
although denser groupings can occur. Nests are scraped out by the male within a
few metres of water amid sedges, grasses or small shrubs. The female abandons
the male as soon as the clutch is complete; if successful at finding another
mate, she can begin a second clutch just a week after completing the first.3
Egg dates for 72 nests in the Nest Record file extend from 15 June to 21 July;
most of these nests were found at La Pérouse Bay by C. Gratto and M. Rausch in
1980–1981. Hatchlings have been observed as early as 2 July. Like several other
shorebirds, this species declined markedly as a breeding species in the
Churchill region during the second half of the 20th century.4
After leaving the nesting areas,
females form small flocks along the Hudson Bay coast between early and
mid-July. Males follow two weeks later, with juveniles departing two weeks
after that.3 Flocks of as many as 1000 juveniles were noted on large
ponds near Churchill in August 1966.1,5 Migrants in southern
Manitoba follow a more easterly route in fall than in spring, being more common
east of the Red River but less numerous in the southwest.6,7 The
first migrants pass through the south in July, the peak movement (mostly
juveniles) is between mid-August and early September, and the last stragglers
occur in mid-October. Fall concentrations typically number 5–50 birds, but
occasionally many more; for example, 450 were counted on 27 August 1982 at
Winnipeg’s West End Water Pollution Control Centre.8
1 Jehl, in preparation; 2 Reynolds
et al. 1986; 3 Reynolds 1987; 4 Jehl & Lin 2001;
5 Jehl & Smith 1970; 6 Taylor 1983; 7 Knapton
1979a; 8 Commonly known as the Charleswood sewage lagoons.
J.D. Reynolds
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