Red-necked Stint (Calidris ruficollis)

Today it was another quick trip down to Goolwa, with a busy work day scheduled for tomorrow. By chance we both got new birds for Blipbigyear - one each. See Paladian's bird here.

The Red-necked Stint is a small and quite common migratory wader and is a very small sandpiper. The legs are short and the bill is straight or slightly decurved, with a bulbous tip. In non-breeding plumage, the upper parts are brown and grey-brown, with most feathers pale-edged, giving a mottled effect. There is a pale eye-stripe.

Sharper beak.

The rump and tail are black and the outer tail-feathers and sides of rump white. There is a pale wing-stripe in flight. The underparts are white with some grey on the sides of the breast. Eyes are dark brown, bill and legs are black. They are small, being about 12 cms in length.

The Red-necked Stint is very similar in size, shape and plumage to the Little Stint which has longer legs, is dumpier and has a blunter rear end at rest.

The Red-necked Stint breeds in north-eastern Siberia and northern and western Alaska. It follows the East Asian-Australasian Flyway to spend the southern summer months in Australia. They arrive in Australia from late August to September and leave from early March to mid-April. Some first-year birds may remain in Australia.

They are found widely in Australia, on the coast, in sheltered inlets, bays, lagoons, estuaries and protected sandy or coralline shores.
They are often seen in dense flocks, feeding, as they were today down at Goolwa.

They usually feed for the entire period that mudflats are exposed, often feeding with other species. They forage with a rather hunched posture, picking constantly and rapidly at the muddy surface, then dashing to another spot.