Red/Red-necked Phalarope - Francesca Albini

ML609902276

Red/Red-necked Phalarope Phalaropus fulicarius/lobatus

Report

Contributor

Date

Location

Humedales de Montaña La Kisst, Laguna de Chapultepec y Sedem--Laguna de Chapultepec
San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico
Media from this location Illustrated Checklist
Map
Map Coordinates: 16.730912, -92.6468837
Age
Not specified
Sex
Not specified

Observation details

Continuing bird from yesterday and also seen earlier today. I was approaching Laguna de Chapultepec again after scanning all the back lagoons to see if it had landed there, when I saw it flying away, once more heading west. I decided to stay for a while, as it seemed like the bird might possibly return, after seeing it here twice today. Meanwhile three men walked all around the perimeter of the wall of the lagoon, scaring away all the ducks from the platform. This might have helped, as after what seemed like a long while, the phalarope reappeared, close to the the central metallic structure, and this time this spot was completely free from ducks. The bird fed for a short while behind the structure, where it was not visible. It finally settled on a resting spot on the right side of the platform, where it was again partially hidden from view. Finally, when the ducks started coming back to the platform, it got up again, preened, and eventually got scared by the presence of the nearby ducks, and took off heading west. Once again my camera/lens combination was unable to focus on the bird, choosing the platform instead, so all images are quite blurry. I still don't have access to a computer with photo editing software. The bill seems rather long and pointy in some of the pictures but not in all. The back seems to have some pattern, like faint streaking, but not in all pictures. My impression when looking at it was that Red-necked Phalarope seemed more likely, but I'm not sure and I have almost no experience with these species. Views were short as it mostly stayed hidden from view. A scope/longer lens would have been helpful. Edit: after looking at the unedited crops I made today from the raw files, I am leaning toward Red-necked Phalarope based on thin, long bill, and some faint streaking on back

Technical information

Model
Canon EOS 7D
Focal length
420 mm
Flash
Flash did not fire
f-stop
f/5.7
Shutter speed
61/125000 sec
Dimensions
612 pixels x 471 pixels
Original file size
99.65 KB