Red Phalarope
Phalaropus fulicarius (Linnaeus, 1758)
Scolopacidae — Sandpipers, Snipes
Red Phalarope, Phalaropus fulicarius, breeds in the high Arctic of North America and the Palearctic, including Greenland, Iceland, Svalbard, Novaya Zemlya, northern Siberia, Alaska and northern Canada. Outside the breeding season it moves to coastal waters, reaching the Atlantic and Pacific from North America to South America, and also the eastern tropical and South Atlantic off Africa. It is a wader in the sandpiper family, and its breeding plumage is marked by dark upperparts, red underparts and white cheek patches. It has lobed toes and a straight bill, and the winter plumage is grey and white with a black eyepatch.
- Order
- Charadriiformes
- Family
- Scolopacidae — Sandpipers, Snipes
- Breeding range
- North America, Palearctic: mostly high (locally low) Arctic marshy tundra of Holarctic: from sw, ec Greenland, Iceland (local), Svalbard (n of Norway), Novaya Zemlya and n Siberia to Bering Strait; n Alaska and n Canada including s tier of Arctic Canadian islands
- Nonbreeding range
- temperate to tropical coastal waters of Atlantic and Pacific oceans: from n California to s Chile (e Pacific) and Atlantic USA to n Florida (w North Atlantic); coastal waters of e tropical and South Atlantic off nw, w, sw Africa
