Red-necked stint – Calidris ruficollis
Photographed in its more drab non-breeding plumage on the mud flats on the shores of Lake Ellesmere.
15cm, 30g.
This tiny wader breeds in Siberia and northwestern Alaska and migrates thousands of kilometres to the coats of Malaysia, Phillipines and Australasia. Several hundred reach New Zealand in summer with a few over wintering. Found mostly at estuaries and coastal lakes. A drab bird outside of the breeding season it gets its distinctive red neck and rufous-edged feathers as it is getting ready to return to the northern hemisphere for breeding. Often found in association with the endemic and slightly larger New Zealand wrybill (Anarhynchus frontalis).
Red-necked stint – Calidris ruficollis
Photographed in its more drab non-breeding plumage on the mud flats on the shores of Lake Ellesmere.
15cm, 30g.
This tiny wader breeds in Siberia and northwestern Alaska and migrates thousands of kilometres to the coats of Malaysia, Phillipines and Australasia. Several hundred reach New Zealand in summer with a few over wintering. Found mostly at estuaries and coastal lakes. A drab bird outside of the breeding season it gets its distinctive red neck and rufous-edged feathers as it is getting ready to return to the northern hemisphere for breeding. Often found in association with the endemic and slightly larger New Zealand wrybill (Anarhynchus frontalis).