Breeding adult male. Photo: Jason Crotty/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
Phalaropus tricolor
| Conservation status | Has lost many nesting areas owing to draining of prairie marshes, but still numerous. Protection of staging areas for migrants (such as Mono Lake, California) is important for survival. |
|---|---|
| Family | Sandpipers |
| Habitat | Shallow prairie lakes, fresh marshes, mudflats; in migration, also salt marshes. Nests mostly at shallow fresh-water marshes in open country. In migration, may stop at ponds, coastal marshes, sewage treatment plants, but biggest concentrations are at salty or alkaline lakes. Winters mostly on salty lakes in South America. |
Forages mostly while swimming (but does more walking on shore than other phalaropes). Picks up small items from surface of water, sometimes probes in soft mud. Sometimes stands still and catches flying insects; rarely pursues insects in the air.
4, sometimes 3. Buff, blotched with brown. Incubation is by male only, 18-27 days, usually about 23 days. Young: Downy young leave nest within a day after hatching. Male tends young and broods them while they are small, but young find all their own food. Male may try to lure predators away from nest or young by performing broken-wing act. Age of young at first flight and age at independence unknown.
Downy young leave nest within a day after hatching. Male tends young and broods them while they are small, but young find all their own food. Male may try to lure predators away from nest or young by performing broken-wing act. Age of young at first flight and age at independence unknown.
Mostly aquatic insects and crustaceans. Eats a variety of flies and their larvae, beetles, true bugs, and other insects, mainly aquatic species. Also eats shrimp, copepods, seeds of marsh plants. During autumn and winter on salty lakes, may feed mostly on brine shrimp and brine flies.
Females compete for males; one female may mate with more than one male during the season, leaving each of her mates to care for a set of eggs. In courtship, female stretches neck, puffs out neck feathers, makes chugging call. Nest site is usually on ground near water, sometimes a couple of inches above ground in marsh plants. Typical nest is shallow depression with slight lining of grass. Female may take the lead in choosing nest site, but male finishes nest.
Audubon’s scientists have used 140 million bird observations and sophisticated climate models to project how climate change will affect this bird’s range in the future.
Zoom in to see how this species’s current range will shift, expand, and contract under increased global temperatures.
Choose a temperature scenario below to see which threats will affect this species as warming increases. The same climate change-driven threats that put birds at risk will affect other wildlife and people, too.
Newly passed western water package will support 21st century infrastructure, water supply security, and ecological resilience.
To better protect people and birds, Audubon science makes the case for the U.S. government’s first coordinated regional assessment of Great Basin saline lakes.
Unlike other drying lakes, Utah has the opportunity to change course and avoid those costs.
Saline lakes and their associated wetlands throughout Intermountain West create a network of critical habitat that millions of birds depend on for breeding, resting and feeding during migration, and wintering.
Audubon is working to identify, protect, and restore priority habitats in the Colorado River basin and around intermountain saline lakes
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