Common Redshank

Tringa totanus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Common Redshank Tringa totanus is a wader of marshes and meadows across the Palearctic, breeding from Iceland and northern Scandinavia to southern Iberia and coastal Tunisia, and east through Siberia, Mongolia, China and the Himalayas. Outside the breeding season it moves to wetlands from Africa to northern Australia, including the British Isles, the Middle East, south and south-east Asia, the Indonesian Archipelago, Taiwan, the Ryukyu Islands and parts of China. It has red legs and a red bill with a black tip, and in flight it shows white on the back and wings. In breeding plumage it is brown and mottled, becoming plainer grey-brown in winter.

Order

Charadriiformes

Family

Scolopacidae — Sandpipers, Snipes

Breeding range

Palearctic: subarctic to temperate coastal and inland marshes, meadows of Palearctic: Iceland to n Scandinavia and s to s Iberian Pen. and coastal Tunisia, in n from Baltics, sw Russia, Kazakhstan, n Mongolia e to Amurland (se Russia), s through n Middle East, most of c Asia, Himalayas, Tibetan Plateau, e to ne China

Nonbreeding range

sw PAL, AF, OR : temperate to tropical inland and coastal wetlands of Africa to n Australia: s British Isles, Africa (except s), Middle East, s, se Asia to Malay Pen., Indonesian Arch., e China, Philippines, Taiwan and Ryukyu Is. (s Japan)