Phalarope
The three species of phalaropes are Limicole S of the family of the scolopacidés , pertaining to the subfamily of the phalaropodinés and constituting the kind Phalaropus . They were formerly regarded as pertaining to the family of phalaropodidés.
Their size varies from 15 to 25 cm length. In winter, they take a gray and white color whereas the bridal plumage tends towards the red. The females generally larger and are more highly coloured than the males.
The phalaropes show three unusual characteristics.
- an inversion of the usual role of the sexes at the time of the nesting: the females adapt the territory, defend it and leave with the males the care incubation of eggs, starting their migration towards the south little time after the laying.
- Their method of fishing, which consists in creating a weak swirl in water in order to raise the food of the bottom; that enables them to seize their preys (small insects or shellfish) while plunging the nozzle in the middle of the swirl.
- the fact that two of them adopt, apart from the period of reproduction, a resolutely marine lifestyle, at the point to be the only limicolous ones with being sometimes integrated in the category of the birds of sea.
List species
- Phalarope with broad nozzle - Phalaropus fulicaria (Linnaeus, 1758) - Red Phalarope
- Phalarope with narrow nozzle - Phalaropus lobatus (Linnaeus, 1758) - Red-necked Phalarope
- Phalarope of Wilson - Phalaropus tricolor (Old-fashioned, 1819) or Steganopus tricolor - Wilson' S Phalarope
References
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