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Australian Wildlife

  Red Knot (Calidris canutus)





Red Knot | Calidris canutus photo
Red Knot

Image by Jan van de Kam - Some rights reserved.    (view image details)

Red Knot | Calidris canutus photo
Red Knot

Image by Jcwf - Some rights reserved.    (view image details)







RED KNOT FACTS

Description
The Red Knot is a medium sized shore bird. The winter plumage is pale grey and males and females are similar in appearance. The breeding plumage is mottled grey with reddish brown face throat and breast. The females breeding plumage is similar to the male but not so bright with less prominent eye line. The legs are fairly short and dark and the bill is dark

Size
25 cm long with 50 cm wing span

Habitat
mudflats where they feed by probing for food in the mud

Food
mollusks and other shellfish, crabs, also insects and spiders

Breeding
the red knot nests near water, usually inland. The nest is a shallow scrape in the ground lined with leaves and mos. It does not breed in Australia.

Range
the Red Knot breeds in the Arctic in the far north of Canada, Europe, and Russia. It migrates to the southern hemisphere in northern winter and is a visitor to coastline of northern parts of Australia.

distribution map showing range of Calidris canutus in Australia

Credits:
Map is from Atlas of Living Australia website at https://biocache.ala.org.au licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.



Classification
Class:Aves
Order:Charadriiformes
Family:Scolopacidae
Genus:Calidris
Species:canutus
Common Name:Red Knot

Relatives in same Genus
  Sharp-tailed Sandpiper (C. acuminata)
  Sanderling (C. alba)
  Dunlin (C. alpina)
  Baird's Sandpiper (C. bairdii)
  Curlew Sandpiper (C. ferruginea)
  White-rumped Sandpiper (C. fuscicollis)
  Pectoral Sandpiper (C. melanotos)
  Little Stint (C. minuta)
  Long-toed Stint (C. subminuta)
  Great Knot (C. tenuirostris)