Red Knot

Overview

Red Knot: Medium-sized sandpiper with black, brown and gray scaled upperparts, red-brown face, neck, breast and sides, and white lower belly. Wings show white bars in flight. Bill is black and slightly curved. Eats insects, larvae, mollusks and crabs. Swift direct flight with rapid wing beats.

Range and Habitat

Red Knot: Breeds on islands in the arctic regions of Canada. Spends winters along Pacific and Atlantic coasts from California and Massachusetts south to South America; also found in Europe and Asia. Nests on tundra; found on tidal flats, rocky shores, and beaches during migration and winter.

INTERESTING FACTS

The Red Knot was first described by Linnaeus in his Systema naturae in 1758 as Tringa canutus.
It does not regurgitate undigested hard parts of prey, as do many species of birds. Instead it excretes the hard parts in the feces.
It is estimated that during migration, as much as 90% of the total population of this bird can be found in Delaware Bay, feeing on the eggs of spawning horseshoe crabs.
A group of knots are collectively known as a "cluster", "fling", and "tangle" of knots.

The Red Knot has a large range, estimated globally at 100,000 to 1,000,000 square kilometers. Native to the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa, this bird prefers grassland, wetland, and marine ecosystems. The global population of this bird is estimated at 1,100,000 to 5,000,000 individuals and does not show signs of decline that would necessitate inclusion on the IUCN Red List. For this reason, the current evaluation status of the Red Knot is Least Concern.