Medium. Small, stocky, with short upcurved chisel-like bill, short legs. Sexes similar.
Male: Breeding: Black and white on head and breast. Mantle, scapulars, wing coverts, chestnut mixed with black and white. Center of back, tertial coverts, tips of greater wing coverts, lower tail coverts, white. Initial tail coverts, black. Tail, black, with outer feathers tipped white, outermost feathers white with black subterminal spot. Underparts, underwing, white. Bill, black. Eye, dark brown. Legs, red orange. Non-breeding: Chestnut replaced with brown. Head pattern mostly lost and replaced by brown. Breast band smaller and mottled brown and black.
Female: Breeding: Similar to male only duller.
Immatures: Like non-breeding but has pale patches on head and feathers of back edged in buff.
Habits
Usually solitary or in small groups, on sandy beaches, exposed mud, coral flats, seaweed patches.
Food
Insects, worms, crustaceans, molluscs, spiders and occasionally eggs and carrion. Insects on Tundra, marine invertebrates on seashores.
Voice
A ringing, 'kiew', and a guttural, rattling, 'trititititi...'. Short, nasal, calls uttered in alarm when feeding, and a longer urgent-sounding call uttered in flight.
Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres) [XC589123]
by Stanislas Wroza from \u00cele-de-Sein, Finist\u00e8re, Bretagne, France (alarm call, call, song, flipping stones, feet noise)
Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria) [XC798967]
by Ray Tsu \u8bf8\u4ec1 from Baix Ebre (near Deltebre), Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain (call)
Breeding Season (Guide)
Does not breed in Australia. Breeds June - July in northern hemisphere.
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Nest
A shallow scrape, on a slight mound in the open or in a crevice in rocks, sparsely lined.
Eggs (Guide)
4, rarely 3; shiny green or brown with underlying patches of grey and marked with well-defined dark blotches; oval to pyriform; about 40 x 29 mm. Incubation: 21 - 24 days; mainly by female.
Subspecies
The following 2 subspecies are recognised:
interpres (Linnaeus, 1758) - Axel Heiberg I and Ellesmere I (northern Canadian Arctic), Greenland, northern Eurasia and north-western Alaska. Winters on coasts of western Europe, Africa, southern Asia, Australasia and southern Pacific islands, with some also on Pacific coast of North America, from California to at least Mexico.
morinella (Linnaeus, 1766) - North-eastern Alaska and most of Arctic Canada. Winters from South Carolina and Gulf of Mexico to south-central Chile and northern Argentina.
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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BirdLife International Species Factsheet