Red-necked Phalarope
May 26, 2017 – The Red-necked Phalarope is a small delicate looking bird about 7 inches in length with an elegant form and dance like movements as it swims across the water hunting for insects. On a less traveled migratory route the Phalarope is occasionally seen by a lucky few each year in Illinois. The west coast and the western states of North American and off shore on the east coast is the birds normal pattern of migration as it heads for the lakes and ponds on the tundra in the arctic for the nesting season. This spring migration was no exception when I came across a pair in north western Iroquois county in a small flooded area surrounded by corn stubble. The pair were in breeding plumage and were on constant hunt for small worms and insects, at times spinning around in circles in the water churning up a vortex of sediment and exposing perhaps a tasty insect larvae. During the winter the Red-necked Phalarope is out to sea off the coast of Ecuador and Peru with concentrations around the Galapagos Islands where the warm and cold ocean currents meet creating a plankton rich food source for this pelagic species.
Red-necked Phalarope
