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Red Knot - Calidris canutus

Characteristics
Range
Habitat
Diet
Life Cycle
Behavior
 Classification

 Phylum: Chordata
 Class: Aves
 Order: Charadriiformes
 Family: Scolopacidae
 Genus:  Calidris  

Red Knot

ICUN Redlist - World Status: Least ConcernNear Threatened
Rufa Red KnotĀ (Calidris canutus rufa) Threatened Threatened in U.S.
    Audio Credit: xeno-canto.org Fernando Jacobs cc logo
  Characteristics

Red KnotThe red knot is a medium-sized shorebird. During breeding season, it has a rust colored face, chest and undersides and dark brown wings. It has a long, sharp bill and long legs.

Red Knot In winter, it has a gray head, chest and upperparts and a white belly. It has long greenish legs and a pointed black bill. Males and females look similar.

  Range
mapThe red knot breeds on islands in the Arctic regions of Canada. It winters along both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts from California and Massachusetts south to South America. The red knot is also found in Europe and Asia. The Rufa Red KnotĀ (Calidris canutus rufa), found in the eastern U.S. suffered a major population decline in the 2000s and is now a threatened species in the U.S.

  Habitat
Red KnotThe red knot breeds on the tundra. During migration and in the winter it can be found on tidal flats, rocky shores and beaches.
 
  Diet
Red KnotOn its breeding ground, the red knot eats the seeds of sedges, horsetails and grass shoots. It may also poke around in snow-free areas for invertebrates. It also eats beetles and cutworm larvae. In its winter range, it eats marine worms, grasshoppers, horseshoe crab eggs and other invertebrates.
  Life Cycle
Red KnotDuring courtship, the male red knot flies up into the air, starts singing, glides around a bit and then lands with his wings pointed up. The female red knot lays four eggs in a depression in the ground. The nest is lined with lichen. Both parents incubate the eggs, in fact the male may do most of the incubation. The chicks hatch in about three weeks and they fledge in another three weeks.

  Behavior

The red knot is a long-distance migrator. Red knots that migrate to South America can make a round trip of close to 20,000 miles.

 



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