Red-necked Phalarope
When I spotted this shorebird at the same location that I found a Dunlin about 2 days before, I initially thought this was the same bird. (See previous frame for Dunlin photo.) However with a closer look I realized this was an even rarer bird, a Phalarope. Finding this species definitely made my day and I had a chance to read-up on Phalaropes:
Red-necked Phalaropes are fascinating shorebirds. Sex roles are reversed so that the females are the more colorful ones and it is they who compete aggressively with each other for the males. Responsibility for tending to the eggs and the young goes to the male. Red-necked Phalaropes breed in the Arctic but spend winters off the coast of Ecuador and Peru in tropical ocean waters.
Saratoga Lake
Stillwater, NY
Red-necked Phalarope
When I spotted this shorebird at the same location that I found a Dunlin about 2 days before, I initially thought this was the same bird. (See previous frame for Dunlin photo.) However with a closer look I realized this was an even rarer bird, a Phalarope. Finding this species definitely made my day and I had a chance to read-up on Phalaropes:
Red-necked Phalaropes are fascinating shorebirds. Sex roles are reversed so that the females are the more colorful ones and it is they who compete aggressively with each other for the males. Responsibility for tending to the eggs and the young goes to the male. Red-necked Phalaropes breed in the Arctic but spend winters off the coast of Ecuador and Peru in tropical ocean waters.
Saratoga Lake
Stillwater, NY