It breeds across northern Scandinavia and northern Asia and migrates south to the Mediterranean, the southern British Isles, France, tropical Africa, and tropical Asia for the winter. It is an occasional vagrant to Australia and North America.
Taxonomy
The Spotted Redshank was first described by German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas in 1764. It is a monotypic species, with no recognised subspecies. Taxonomically, it forms a close-knit group with several other large Tringa species, with molecular sequencing showing it to be a sister clade to that containing the Greater Yellowlegs and the Common Greenshank.
Description
This is a large wader (shorebird), measuring 29–31 cm (11–12 in) long,[nb 1] with a wingspan of 61–67 cm (24–26 in) and a weight ranging from 121 to 205 g (4.3 to 7.2 oz).[5] It is black in breeding plumage, and very pale in winter. It has a red legs and bill, and shows a white oval on the back in flight. Juveniles are grey-brown finely speckled white above, and have pale, finely barred underparts. The call is a creaking whistle teu-it (somewhat similar to the call of a Roseate Tern), the alarm call a kyip-kyip-kyip.
Habitat and range
The Spotted Redshank breeds in the Arctic across much of Eurasia, from Lapland in the west to Chukotskaya in the east.
Behaviour
Food and feeding
Like most waders, it feeds on small invertebrates.
Breeding
It nests on open boggy taiga, laying four eggs in a ground scrape.
Conservation and threats
The Spotted Redshank is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.
