9

Red-necked Phalaropes are small, relatively short-legged waders. During the breeding season their plumage is dimorphic, i.e. males and females are slightly different. Females have a mostly dark-grey head, nape of the neck and back. On the back they have longitudinal ochre stripes on both sides. Down the front the chin is white, surrounded by a rusty semi-crescent in the shape of a "U", below which the grey chest connects to the grey of the upperparts. Belly, vent and undertail are white. They have light-grey plumes on the flanks. Males closely resemble females, but - being the sole carers for their brood - they have duller colours. In eclipse both sexes look alike. The head is white, except for black bars on the ear coverts and a black hindcap and hindneck. The front is white, while the upperparts are mid-grey with paler edges, giving them a scalloped appearance. In all plumages the irises are dark, the thin pointy bill is dark-grey and the legs and feet are grey. Juveniles resemble adults in eclipse, but their upperparts are dark-grey where adults are mid-grey.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Red-necked Pharalope is available HERE .

Red-necked Pharalopes are a global, strongly migratory species. Their breeding grounds are near the Arctic circle, all around the globe. They overwinter mostly in three general areas: South-east Asia (some move on to Australia and New Zealand), around the Arabian peninsula, and along the central American West coast and the seas off the West coast of South America. Elsewhere they are only found during their migration.

In Europe Red-necked Phalaropes are summer breeding migrants to parts of Ireland and Scotland, including the islands northward of Scotland, the Norwegian highlands to the Kola peninsula and farther eastward, to near-coastal north-western Russia. During their migration they can occasionally be found in both freshwater and saltwater habitats.

Red-necked Phalaropes breed in a variety of habitats, from wet marshes to tundra and also above the treeline in rocky mountainous terrain.

A. Sarok reports spotting Red-necked Phalaropes in Vojvodina, Serbia, in the timeframe 2010-2024. All sighting and photographic information presented on this page has been kindly contributed by A. Sarok.