The Red Knot is a stocky, medium-sized sandpiper famous for one of the longest and most remarkable migrations of any bird — some populations fly from the high Arctic to the southern tip of South America and back each year. In breeding plumage it is beautiful, a rich rusty-red across the face and underparts, while the migrants usually seen in Michigan are plainer gray birds, chunky and short-legged with a straight, medium-length bill. It feeds by probing mudflats and beaches for mollusks and other small prey.
The Red Knot has declined sharply, tied in part to the loss of key food supplies at critical migration stopovers, and it is now assessed as Near Threatened globally, with the American subspecies (rufa) listed as federally threatened in the United States. In Michigan it occurs as a rare and declining migrant, mostly in late spring and fall on Great Lakes beaches, shorelines, and mudflats. Given its conservation plight, every Red Knot that pauses on a Michigan beach is a bird of real significance.
Feeds on mollusks, crustaceans, marine and aquatic worms, and insects, probing and picking on mudflats, beaches, and shorelines. At key coastal stopovers it famously times its arrival to feast on the eggs of spawning horseshoe crabs, and it depends on such rich food to fuel its extreme migrations.
It has declined sharply, partly due to loss of critical food supplies at key migration stopovers, and is now assessed as Near Threatened globally. The American subspecies (rufa) is federally listed as threatened in the United States.
Some Red Knots fly from the high Arctic to the southern tip of South America and back each year, one of the longest migrations of any bird, depending on a few crucial stopover sites to refuel along the way.
As a rare and declining migrant, mostly in late spring and fall, on Great Lakes beaches, shorelines, and mudflats. Breeding birds are rusty-red below, but migrants here are usually plainer gray.
The brick-red underparts belong to breeding adults in spring. Fall migrants and juveniles are plain gray with a pale eyebrow, and juveniles add fine scaly edging to the back feathers.
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