
Wilson's phalarope
SPECIES
A medium-sized (9 inches) wader, the male Wilson’s Phalarope in summer is most easily identified by its gray crown, black face, white throat, pale rust-red breast, and light gray wings with dark edges. The female Wilson’s Phalarope is similar but duller, especially on the back and face. Winter birds of both sexes are light gray above and pale below with a light gray head, and forehead and faint gray eye-stripes. This species is unmistakable in summer; in winter, it may be separated from the related Red Phalarope (Phalaropus fulicarius) and Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus) by its plainer wings as well as its longer bill and legs. Wilson’s Phalarope breeds primarily in the west-central United States and southwestern Canada, with smaller populations in the Great Lakes and further north and east in Canada. In winter, this species migrates south to southwestern South America, being most common from southern Peru to northern Argentina. This species’ temperate-zone breeding grounds, terrestrial wintering grounds, and exclusively New World distribution separate it from the other two phalarope species, which breed across the arctic and winter at sea. Wilson’s Phalaropes breed in a
via GBIF
via Xeno-canto
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Wilson's phalaropes wading near cattails Wilson's phalarope (Phalaropus tricolor) is a small wader. This bird, the largest of the phalaropes, breeds in the prairies of North America in western Canada and the western United States. It is migratory, wintering in inland salt lakes near the Andes in Argentina. They are passage migrants through Central America around March/April and again during September/October. The species is a rare vagrant to western Europe.
This species is often very tame and approachable. Sometimes it is placed in a monotypic genus Steganopus.
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