Red-kneed dotterel
The red-kneed dotterel (Erythrogonys cinctus) is a long-legged, medium-sized (length 17–20 cm, wingspan 33–38 cm, weight 40-55 g) plover in a monotypic genus in the subfamily Vanellinae. It is often gregarious and will associate with other waders of its own and different species, even when nesting. It is nomadic and sometimes irruptive.
Description
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.
Distribution
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.
Habitat
Mainly margins of shallow ephemeral and permanent freshwater wetlands, occasionally saline wetlands, but rarely tidal wetlands.
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