Spotted Redshank

Tringa erythropus Order: CHARADRIIFORMES Family: Sandpipers (Scolopacidae)
Spotted Redshank Portrait
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General

Spotted Redshank: Large sandpiper with mostly black body except for white rump, white spots on wings and barred tail. Bill is red with black tip. Legs and feet are red. Sexes are similar. Winter adult has pale gray-brown upperparts, dark eyestripe, and white rump and underparts. Juvenile resembles winter adult but is darker.

Range and Habitat

Spotted Redshank: Breeds in northern Eurasia. Spends winters from Mediterranean region to eastern China south to equatorial Africa and southeast Asia. In spring and fall rarely visits Aleutians. Preferred habitats include freshwater or brackish wetlands, including sewage farms, irrigated rice fields, brackish lagoons, salt marshes, and sheltered muddy shores along coasts.

Voice Text

"chueet, chueet"

Interesting Facts

 The Spotted Redshank is also called Dusky or Black Redshank.

 It was first described in 1764 by Peter Simon Pallas, a German zoologist and botanist who worked in Russia.

 Taxonomically, it forms a close-knit group with the Greater Yellowlegs and the Greenshank, which among them show all the basic leg and foot colours of the shanks.

 A group of sandpipers has many collective nouns, including a "bind", "contradiction", "fling", "hill", and "time-step" of sandpipers.



Author

Gary Owen Dick

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Range Map for Spotted Redshank

Related Birds

Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Common Greenshank
Common Redshank
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Family Sandpiper (Scolopacidae)_blue
Species Tringa erythropus
Length12.5 Inches
Wingspan24 Inches

Spotted Redshank

Spotted Redshank: Large sandpiper, mostly black body except for white rump, white spots on wings, barred tail. Bill is red with black tip. Legs and feet are dark red. Feeds and forages on land or in shallow water by probing in mud, and sweeping bill back and forth. Swift direct flight when flushed.

● Song: "chueet, chueet"

● Foraging & Feeding: Spotted Redshank: Feeds mainly on insects, small crustaceans, mollusks, worms, fish, and amphibians. Forages on land or in shallow water, gleaning from surfaces or probing; occasionally swims while feeding in deep water, and may immerse head and neck completely.

● Breeding & nesting: Spotted Redshank: Four green eggs with large black brown blotches are laid in a grass tussock or on moss clump sparsely lined with plant material. Incubation ranges from 23 to 24 days and is carried out by both parents.

● Similar species: Spotted Redshank: Common Redshank has brown upperparts, and white underparts with streaks on head, neck, and upper breast.

Flight Pattern

Swift direct flight.
Spotted Redshank Body Illustration
● Range & Habitat: Spotted Redshank: Breeds in northern Eurasia. Spends winters from Mediterranean region to eastern China south to equatorial Africa and southeast Asia. In spring and fall rarely visits Aleutians. Preferred habitats include freshwater or brackish wetlands, including sewage farms, irrigated rice fields, brackish lagoons, salt marshes, and sheltered muddy shores along coasts.
BreedingMonogamous
PopulationCasual to rare
MigrationMigratory
Weight5.6 Ounces