Red-necked Phalarope

About the Red-necked Phalarope

The Red-necked Phalarope is a tiny shorebird that spends most of its life at sea. It nests on Arctic tundra pools, then spends the winter far out on the open ocean, riding the swells in flocks and feeding on plankton. Like the other phalaropes, it swims rather than wades, spinning in quick circles to pull food up to the surface where it can pick it off with its needle-thin bill.

Phalaropes also reverse the usual roles. Females are the brighter birds, with the rusty red neck the species is named for, and they court the males and compete for them. Males incubate the eggs and raise the chicks on their own. By fall both sexes molt into a plain gray-and-white winter plumage with a dark smudge through the eye, which is how this bird looked.

In Central Texas the Red-necked Phalarope is a rare find. Most of the population migrates along the coasts and over the ocean, so only a few individuals turn up on inland ponds each fall, usually after storms or strong winds. It is much scarcer here than its larger cousin, the Wilson's Phalarope, and it is told apart by its smaller size, shorter and finer bill, and darker, striped back.

This bird was swimming on the ponds at Hornsby Bend in Austin on October 23, 2026, in the same session as Wilson's Phalaropes, which made a rare side-by-side comparison of the two species.