Phalaropus lobatus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Kumar, Sanjeev, Banyal, Harinder Singh & Sharma, Indu, 2021, First Record of Phalaropus lobatus (Linnaeus, 1758) Red Necked Phalarope (Charadriiformes: Scolopacidae) from Narayan Sarovar Wildlife Sanctuary, Gujarat, Records of the Zoological Survey of India 121 (2), pp. 211-214 : 212-213

Phalaropus lobatus (Linnaeus, 1758) Red-necked Phalarope

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1758. Tringatobata [sic] Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, 1: 148. Type-locality: Europa= Sweden.

1987. Phalaropuslobatus (Linnaeus), Ali & Ripley Compact Hand Book No. 428 (2): 323-325.

2001. Phalaropuslobatus (Linnaeus, 1758), Manakadan & Pittie. Buceros , 6 (1): 7.

Field identification characters: A pair of adult in non-breeding stage was recorded from a large wetland in the sanctuary for almost three consecutive days. Size of the pair was about 19 cm. It is a delicately build sandpiper like small wader with fine black pointed bill. The morphological variations are there in breeding and non-

Source: Google Earth

Figure 1. Satellite image depicting point location from where Red-necked Phalarope was recorded.

Sanjeev Kumar, Harinder Singh Banyal and Indu Sharma breeding adults. The non-breeding adults and juveniles are duller in comparison to the breeding adults’ females comparatively brighter than males. Adult breeding has white throat and reddish golden stripe down side of grey neck. Adult non-breeding has pale grey upper parts, black eye stripe, head white with black hind crown and white underparts, white edges to mantle and scapular feathers, forming fairly distinct lines present. Juvenile has dark grey upperparts with orange-buff mantle and scapular lines. Iris dark brown. Bill dark horny brown-orange at base. Legs and feet dull brown or fleshy brown. Sexes alike, males comparatively smaller.

Distribution: Common offshore along the coastline of NW India and in small numbers and patchily more or less of the entire coastline of peninsular India to East India, Delhi, Rajasthan (Sambhar Lake), Bihar, Karnataka and Gujarat. Elsewhere: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Baluchistan. Breeds in Iceland, Spitzbergen, Faroes, Scandinavia, N. Russia and across the northwestern Indian Ocean, off the coasts of Peru and West Africa, between New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago and in the Banda Sea.

Habit: Found in shallow water bodies and lakes but mainly on coastal waters swimming buoyantly. These birds are halophilic. Their food consists of plankton, insects and especially larvae, crustaceans, molluscs and worms.

Remarks: Migratory. Only a single species was reported on 09/09/2018 at 13.05 hrs. The day was cloudy and windy. Later on, 11/09/2018 two birds were sighted in the same water body. The day was hot and humid.

Conservation Status: IUCN-Least Concern ( Figure 2 ).

The study area is characterized by thorny and scrub vegetation mainly dominated by Prosopis juliflora but, due to the poor monsoon season in 2018, most of the sanctuary was almost dry, and nearly all the water resources had minimal water level. The overall moisture level was significantly less during September 2018. The Red Necked Phalarope was sighted from a pond in Chakrai Rakhal area of the sanctuary near Baranda village (Figure 1).

This part of the sanctuary is under tremendous anthropogenic pressure in terms of the demand of water for agriculture, livestock and other household purposes. This situation is a critical one for most of the wetland birds, including the Red-Necked Phalarope. Hence, it is recommended to strictly regulate the minimum water level in the wetlands of the sanctuary to safeguard the perpetuation of wetland fauna in order to conserve the ecological integrity of these crucial water bodies of the sanctuary.

Figures

Figure 2. Red-Necked PhalaropePhalaropus lobatus, photographed from the Sanctuary area.