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Red Knot

From Opus

Photo by IanFLocation: Seaton Snook, Seaton Carew, Cleveland, UKBreeding and nonbreeding plumages
Photo by IanF
Location: Seaton Snook, Seaton Carew, Cleveland, UK
Breeding and nonbreeding plumages
Calidris canutus

Contents

[edit] Identification

Length 23-26 cm
Wingspan 47-53 cm

  • Black bill
  • Olive-green legs

Summer
Reddish-chestnut, apart from white under-tail coverts and grey wings with a light bar and dark tips
Winter
Reddish parts become grey above and white below.

[edit] Distribution

Photo by IanFHeadland Hartlepool Cleveland UK January 2006
Photo by IanF
Headland Hartlepool Cleveland UK January 2006

Breeds in the high Arctic, rarely in the Western Palearctic but there are old breeding records for Svalbard.

Mainly a passage migrant and winter visitor to the region. Main wintering areas are around the British Isles and on coasts from Denmark to Spain and the Atlantic coast of North-West Africa. Smaller numbers are found in the Mediterranean mainly on the coasts of Spain and Tunisia, southern Italy, Sicily and Greece. Common on passage in the Baltic and on North-West European coasts in Jul-Sep with smaller numbers again in May.

Vagrant to various Cyprus and the Near East countries, Madeira and Cape Verde Islands. Vagrant or rare but regular winter visitor to the Azores.

Wintering birds in Western Europe are mainly ssp islandica from breeding grounds in Arctic Canada, birds on passage include many canutus from North Siberia but the races cannot be separated in winter plumage. Subspecies rufa from Canada south of islandica has been reported from Britain.

[edit] Taxonomy

There are six subspecies, in order of size;

  • C. c. roselaari (largest)
  • C. c. rufa
  • C. c. canutus
  • C. c. islandica
  • C. c. rogersi
  • C. c. piersmai (smallest)

[edit] Habitat

Breeds in, sparsely vegetated foothills and high, rocky plateaux. On passage and in winter found on sandy and muddy shores, on wide estuaries and mudflats. Also on shingle beaches and sometimes on coastal grassland.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Breeding

Three to four eggs are laid in a shallow lined scrape. They are incubated by both adults. The male tends the young until they fledge.

[edit] Vocalisation


Listen in an external program

[edit] References

  1. Wikipedia
  2. Collins Pocket Guide to British Birds 1966

[edit] External Links

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