Spotted Redshank

Overview

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

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.

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.

The Spotted Redshank is a large wading bird found mainly in Arctic regions. Preferred breeding grounds include northern Scandinavia and northern parts of Asia. During winter months, this species migrates southward to the Mediterranean, southern British Isles, France, and tropical areas of Africa and Asia. It prefers areas of fresh or brackish water bodies. Occasional Spotted Redshanks are seen in Australia or North America. This bird has a long, narrow beak which is used to glean aquatic insects and invertebrates from fresh water for feeding, and nests are scrapes on the ground. The conservation rating for the Spotted Redshank is Least Concern.