ML256771711

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Found feeding in the water on the edge of some exposed gravel bars/mudflats along the Connecticut River, picking prey items off the water's surface. Dark ear patch, all black thin needle-like bill, mottled back, dark markings on the underwing. An after hatch year bird, mostly molted into basic plumage with dark gray scapulars with broad white edging. There appears to be a bit of orange-red on the sides of the neck still present from alternate plumage (though this could be staining, see below). I believe a hatch year bird should still have at least some retained juv scapulars with buffy edges at this date. Interestingly the bird had its belly feathers stained rust colored (see photos, especially the flight shot). At first I thought this might be from the water of the Connecticut River, which in places has rocks that must be ferrous and an iron oxide rust layer covers the water in still areas. However, I later learned that Red-necked Phalaropes (and other birds) sometimes have the tips of their belly feathers stained by iron oxides found in the soils on their marshy breeding grounds (Montgomerie, 2006, p. 415). This is the same mechanism that leads to orange staining on Snow Geese as well. (See this helpful blog post where I found the reference cited above and another example of a Red-necked Phalarope with stained feathers: http://birdquiz.net/interesting-phalarope/). This staining from the breeding grounds is likely a better explanation as the staining was pretty extensive and this bird had likely only been in our area since last night. The few days prior to this sighting there were very favorable upper level winds essentially from the arctic all the way to Massachusetts. Rain came in early last night and is likely what grounded this bird on its journey to the coast. Interesting to wonder where it started its flight. The bird left at around 10:20 AM and flew down river. I was not able to relocate it. Hopefully it has made its way to the ocean and is happily feeding in floatsam along a temperature break somewhere off the shelf. Grateful to have crossed paths with it. Montgomerie, R. 2006. Cosmetic and Adventitious colors. In “Bird Coloration: Mechanisms and measurements." Ed. G. E. Hill and K. J. McGraw. Harvard University Press.

Technical information

Original file size

2.03 MB