Medium. Medium straight bill, longish legs. Sexes alike.
Adults: Breeding: Eyebrow, indistinct and beginning at base of bill. Eyering, white. Eye, dark brown. Upperparts, light greyish-brown. Head has dark streaks. Back and wings, with fine dark barring. Lower back, rump, white. Uppertail coverts, white and barred dark brown. Tail, barred dark brown and greyish-brown. Primaries, blackish. Inner primaries, tipped white, and along with white secondaries forms a distinctive white band on trailing edge of wing. Sides of face, breast, white with narrow dark shaft streaks. Throat, belly, and underwing, white. Bill, base orange red, distal two-thirds dark brown. Legs, orange red to red. Non-breeding: Similar but less streaking on upper and underparts. Eyebrow, more conspicuous.
Other Names (World)
Common Redshank, Redshank, Watchdog of the Marshes
Family
Scolopacidae (Sandpipers, Snipes, Phalaropes)
Afghanistan (P), Albania (B) (NB), Algeria, Angola, Armenia (B) (NB), Australia, Austria (B), Azerbaijan (B) (NB), Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus (B), Belgium (B) (NB), Bosnia and Herzegovina (E) (B), Botswana, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria (B) (NB), Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, China (mainland) (P), Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Côte dIvoire, Croatia (Local Name: Hrvatska) (B) (NB), Cyprus (NB), Czech Republic (B), Denmark (B) (NB) (P), Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia (B) (P), Ethiopia, Faroe Islands (B) (NB), Finland (B) (P), France (B) (NB) (P), Gabon, Gambia, Georgia (B), Germany (B) (NB) (P), Ghana, Greece (B) (NB) (P), Guam (NB), Guinea, Guinea-bissau, Hong Kong (China), Hungary (B) (P), Iceland (B) (NB) (P), India, Indonesia, Iran [Islamic Republic of] (B) (NB) (P), Iraq (NB), Ireland (B) (NB), Israel, Italy (B) (NB) (P), Japan, Jordan (NB) (P), Kazakhstan (B), Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan (B), Laos, Latvia (B) (NB), Lebanon, Liberia, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania (B) (P), Macedonia [The Former Yugoslav Republic of] (B) (NB), Malawi, Malaysia (NB), Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Micronesia [Federated States of] (NB), Moldova [Republic of] (B) (P), Mongolia (B), Montenegro (B) (NB), Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands Antilles (B) (NB) (P), Niger, Nigeria, North Korea, Northern Mariana Islands (NB), Norway (B) (P), Oman (NB) (P), Pakistan, Palau (NB), Papua New Guinea, Philippines (NB), Poland (B) (NB) (P), Portugal (B) (NB), Qatar, Romania (B) (NB) (P), Russia (Asian) (B), Russia (Central Asian) (B), Russia (European) (B) (NB) (P), Saudi Arabia (NB), Senegal, Serbia (B) (NB), Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia (Slovak Republic) (B) (NB), Slovenia (B) (NB), Somalia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain (B) (NB) (P), Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden (B) (P), Switzerland (B), Syrian Arab Republic, Taiwan (China), Tajikistan (B), Tanzania [United Republic of], Thailand (NB), Timor-Leste (NB) (P), Togo, Tunisia (B) (NB), Turkey (B) (NB), Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine (B) (P), United Arab Emirates (NB), United Kingdom (B) (NB) (P), Uzbekistan (B), Vietnam, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Vagrant to Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Canada, Christmas Island, Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Gibraltar, Greenland, Rwanda, Seychelles, Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands.
Population
Estimated population is 960,000 - 2,600,000 (2010).
Status LC
Loss of breeding and wintering habitats through agricultural intensification, wetland drainage, flood control, afforestation, land reclamation, industrial development and heavy grazing, are the main threats. Susceptibility to avian influenza may also be a threat.
Food
Worms, molluscs, crustaceans, spiders and insects and their larvae. Also fish and tadpoles. Inland breeding individuals may eat seeds, berries and buds.
Voice
A musical, down-slurred, 'tleu-hu-hu' and a two syllable 'tu-hu'. A volley of strident, high-pitched, repeated, yelping 'teuk' or 'chip', and a persistent and far-carrying, 'klu-klu-klu', uttered in alarm.
Common Redshank (Tringa totanus) [XC836831]
by Jo\u00e3o Tom\u00e1s from Jiuduansha Wetland National Nature Reserve, Shanghai, China (call, flight call)
Common Redshank (Tringa totanus) [XC827913]
by Paul Kelly from Ortegal (near Cari\u00f1o), A Coru\u00f1a, Galicia, Spain (nocturnal flight call)
Breeding Season (Guide)
Does not breed in Australia. Breeds April - July in northern hemisphere.
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Nest
A shallow depression on the ground, in the open, sometimes at the base of a clump of grass, the stems intertwined for concealment from above, sparsely lined. Solitary nests inland or in loose colonies on the coast.
Eggs (Guide)
4; slightly glossy, olive or pale green heavily spotted and blotched with dark reddish-brown; pyriform. Incubation: 22 - 23 days; by both sexes.
Subspecies
Subspecies occuring in Australia not known but probably ussuriensis.
The following 6 subspecies are recognised:
totanus (Linnaeus, 1758) - Breeds in the Bitish Isles, Spain and northern Scandanavia, east to north-western Russia.
ussuriensis Buturlin, 1934 - Russia, east of the Ural Mountains, Mongolia, and northern Manchuria.
terrignotae Meinertzhagen, R & Meinertzhagen, A, 1926 - Southern Manchuria and eastern China.
craggi Hale, 1971 - North-western Sinkiang.
robusta (Schiøler, 1919) - Iceland and The Faeroes.
eurhina (Oberholser, 1900) - Northern India, southern Tibet and Pamir.
Similar Species
Spotted Redshank (Tringa erythropus)
Bill finer, longer and drooped at tip, with orange-red to red at base of lower mandible. In flight, no white wing arcs, secondaries spotted white. Legs are longer.
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9
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