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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