Red-kneed Dotterel
Erythrogonys cinctus
Attractive plover, but contrary to its name, it does not have red knees. Instead it has pinkish upper legs. Adult has solid black hood and white chin with a black breast-band and chestnut flank patch. Juvenile is gray with white underparts lacking the black or red. Fairly common resident around freshwater wetlands, where it often occurs in small flocks.
Identification
Adults distinctively marked: black cap or hood from bill, extending below eyes, merging at nape to grey-brown of back. White chin and throat. Broad black band on breast joining nape and also extending to flanks as chestnut stripe. Belly and vent white. Back and mantle grey-brown, mainly black upperwing with white trailing edge. Upper leg, including tarsal joint or "knee", red. Bill red with dark tip.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Erythrogonys cinctus
- Authority
- Gould, 1838
- Order
- Charadriiformes
- Family
- Charadriidae
- Genus
- Erythrogonys
Range and habitat
The red-kneed dotterel is native to mainland Australia, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia, and has occurred as a vagrant in Tasmania, Palau and New Zealand. Mainly margins of shallow ephemeral and permanent freshwater wetlands, occasionally saline wetlands, but rarely tidal wetlands.
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
With a large range and no evidence of significant population decline, this species' conservation status is of Least Concern.
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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Irania gutturalis
Large, long-billed robin that spends much of its time on the ground with tail cocked. The male has bluish upperparts, a dark face, a white supercilium, a broad black tail, and bright orange underparts. The female has gray underparts, a faintly mottled breast, a whitish throat, and orange sides. Breeds on high-altitude mountain slopes covered with dense scrub. On migration shows up in a variety of scrubby habitats. Calls similar to nightingales, including clear whistles and a low croak.
Asian Dowitcher
Limnodromus semipalmatus
Very uncommon large, long-billed shorebird, nearly the size of a godwit, found in coastal mudflats and open marshes. Breeding adult extensively brick-red below, dark and strongly marked with brick-red tones above. Nonbreeding adult grayish brown with a duller, browner bill. Juvenile dark above, with broad gold feather edges, pale below, washed with warm buff or gold tones and with neat dark stipples and chevron-shaped marks. Blackish legs distinguish Asian from Long-billed Dowitcher, which has yellowish-green legs. Blackish or brownish bill of adult Asian differs from bicolored bill of godwits; note that bill of juvenile Asian has pale base.
Bornean Treepie
Dendrocitta cinerascens
Long-tailed corvid of Borneo’s hilly and montane forests; the only treepie in its range. Note stout black bill, black wings with white patch, and warm buffy brown underparts and face. Social and noisy; often encountered in flocks as individuals keep in contact with one another via an assortment of squawks, rasps, and clinking metallic notes. Can be fairly tame, allowing close approach, especially around trails and campsites.
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