Red Knot

Scarce migrant and non-breeding visitor.

Medium-sized, stocky shorebird with short, straight bill and short, olive-coloured legs. In flight from above, thin white mid-wingbar and pale (not white), barred rump; from below white midwing panel with darker leading and trailing edges. Ad B: (Mar – Aug) Distinctive rich rufous sides of head, throat, breast and flanks. Crown, ear coverts and upperparts brown; some scapulars are chestnut with black anchors and white tips. Two races occur, rogersi and persmai; these can only be differentiated in fresh B plumage. Rogersi has paler, more peach-coloured underparts, vent mostly white, upperparts more silvery-grey, and the chestnut scapulars have a narrow black shaft streak. Piersmai has richer, more rufous-coloured underparts, with rufous streaks on vent and upperparts are more intensely suffused with chestnut. Ad NB: (Sep – Feb) Grey and white. Crown, lores and ear coverts darkish, making whitish supercilium stand out. Throat to breast streaked finely grey on white; belly and vent white, with grey chevrons along flanks. Upperparts uniform pale grey. Juv: (Aug – Oct) Similar to Ad Nb but scapulars, wing coverts and tertials have thin, blackish subterminal fringes.

Slightly smaller, bigger-headed, shorter-legged and shorter-billed than Great Knot, which shows more blotchy upperparts and lacks chevrons on flanks. Curlew Sandpiper is similar in both B and Nb plumages, but is smaller, relatively longer-legged and with a longer, decurved bill. Sharp-tailed Sandpiper is similar in build, but is overall brown, rather than grey.

Similar to Great Knot, with which it often associates.

Occurs in small numbers (<100) along the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and the east coast of Johor. Several hundred have been recorded during northward migration in western Sarawak, and double figure counts have also been made in eastern Sabah.

Most frequently seen from early August – mid-May.