Red-Necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus) lives in arctic tundra across Arctic regions of North America and Eurasia. Its conservation status is Least Concern.
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The red-necked phalarope is a migratory wader that spends its non-breeding months far from shore. Unlike most waders it heads to tropical oceans, wintering on open water throughout the season. This habit follows its breeding in the Arctic regions of North America and Eurasia, after which it leaves for the sea. Because it rarely meets people on these remote waters it is noted for being unusually tame.
When feeding, the bird often swims in a tight, rapid circle that creates a small whirlpool. The vortex lifts insects and tiny crustaceans from the shallow bottom, allowing the phalarope to reach into the centre with its bill and pluck the prey. Such behaviour is especially useful in shallow coastal waters, and on the open ocean the species is commonly found where converging currents generate upwellings that concentrate food.
The male red-necked phalarope assumes all duties of incubation and chick-rearing, while the female may leave to seek another partner. The clutch is incubated for about twenty days before hatching. The chicks are precocial, feeding themselves soon after emergence and are capable of flight within the same twenty-day period.
A bird tagged on Fetlar was followed on an extraordinary migration that ended in the tropical Pacific off Ecuador and Peru. The round-trip covered 26,000 km, crossing the Atlantic via Iceland and Greenland before heading south along North America's east coast. It then passed the Caribbean and Mexico, joining a North American population that winters in those warm waters.
In Britain and Ireland the red-necked phalarope breeds only at fringe sites, the most dependable being Shetland's Loch of Funzie on Fetlar. Elsewhere it is a rare, edge-of-range breeder, with occasional pairs in Scotland's Outer Hebrides and mainland Ross-shire. Historically it also nested in western Ireland, where numbers once rose to about 50 pairs around 1900, though recent records are scarce.
Sources
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As the sun rises over the tranquil wetlands, the Red-Necked Phalarope emerges, its slender form gliding effortlessly across the water's surface, leaving barely a ripple in its wake. With an air of quiet determination, this diminutive bird navigates the aquatic world, its distinctive black and white plumage glistening with dew as it searches for the tiny crustaceans and insects that sustain it. In a whirl of rapid, spinning movements, the phalarope dances through the shallows, its remarkable agility and adaptability allowing it to thrive in this delicate, ever-changing environment.
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