Red Phalarope, Phalaropus fulicarius |
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![]() Red Phalaropes are the largest members of this family, and the least photographed, because they spend by far the most of their life at sea. As with the other phalaropes, the female, above, is the larger and brighter, reversing the usual pattern among sexually dimorphic birds. |
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![]() The Red Phalarope shown above and below was swimming right off the beach at Pillar Point in August with a flock of Red-throated Phalaropes; it is quite unusual to see one of these birds near to shore when away from their breeding grounds, except when they are driven in from the open ocean by powerful winter storms. It is midway in its molt from the red and black of breeding plumage to the gray and white of non-breeding; compare the other August bird shown further down the page. | |
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![]() Above and below, a flock of Red Phalaropes in breeding plumage migrating north in Spring over the ocean several miles from shore off the central California coast; they are on their way to nest in the tundra bordering the Arctic Sea. | |
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![]() Another Red Phalarope in late August molting to non-breeding plumage, migrating south over the ocean from the breeding grounds. It will spend the winter on the open ocean well to the south. |