Red-necked Phalarope
© Credits: Dave Bakewell & Stanley T Shao
SCIENTIFIC NAME
Phalaropus lobatus
MALAY NAME
Kedidi-Jarum Leher Merah
CONSERVATION STATUS
LC
Status
Scarce migrant.
Identification
Stint-sized, squat shorebird with short pale blue legs, lobed toes and needle-like black bill. In flight, short, fat body, very dark above and white below; white midwing bar above and below; dusky flanks and dark central rump line. Ad B: (Apr – Aug) Rarely seen in Malaysia. Females are brighter than males. Forehead, crown and ear coverts charcoal grey; upper eye crescent white; throat white; nape and sides of neck orange-chestnut; sides of breast and flanks broadly streaked smoke-grey; rest of underparts white. Mantle and scapulars grey with some pale orange feathers. Ad Nb: (Oct – Mar) Forehead, lores, throat, most of crown and broad supercilium white; blackish ear coverts form isolated black mask which droops down at rear; rear crown blackish. Breast, belly and vent white, with grey shading on sides of breast and grey streaks on flanks. Mantle and scapulars pale grey. Wing coverts and tertials blackish, edged paler. Juv: (Oct) Crown black from above eye to nape, and ear coverts more solidly black than adults. Sides of breast and flanks have fine blackish streaks. Upperparts blackish; mantle has fine buff ‘tramlines’. In preformative moult, mantle and scapulars are replaced by paler grey feathers.
Similar Species
Vagrant Red Phalarope has thicker bill (sometimes with yellow at base) and black ear covert patch tends to flick up behind eye rather than droop downwards. Ad Nb has uniform pale grey mantle and scapulars. Note, species such as Red-necked Stint, Ruff and Marsh Sandpiper may adopt phalarope-like foraging techniques, swimming and picking prey off water surface, so a swimming shorebird is not always a phalarope.
Typical behaviour
More aquatic than most shorebirds. Forages by swimming and picking small invertebrates off the water surface, including on open sea. Characteristic ‘spinning’ – rotating of the body in one place is thought to bring prey items to the surface.
Vocalizations
Contact and flight calls a series of high-pitched, clipped ‘peep’ notes. https://xeno-canto.org/756816.
Range
Most records are of single birds in the coastal plains, mostly in freshwater wetlands after bad weather. Infrequent offshore observations off the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia and Bornean Malaysia suggest that it may occur more plentifully at sea, with flocks of up to 50 birds occasionally seen. After storms, can occur well inland, especially in Bornean Malaysia, where it is more frequently seen than in Peninsular Malaysia.
Seasonality
Most frequently seen in October and November.
