Wilson's
Phalarope, Phalaropus tricolor
Wilson's Phalaropes are strictly freshwater birds, unlike the other two phalarope species. They nest around lakes and ponds in the basins and plains of the US and Canada, and the southwestern extreme of their nesting area is Sierra Valley, just north of Lake Tahoe in California, where this and three following breeding-plumage photos were taken. They share with their sister species reverse sexual dimorphism, with females larger and more colorful, and males incubating the eggs and raising the young. Above is a breeding plumge female in a roadside pond in Sierra Valley.
The breeding plumage male is almost completely plain gray, relieved only by variably orange-tinted plumage on the neck.
Adults migrating back from the nesting grounds in late July are still in mostly breeding plumage, above, while in late August, below, they show varying amounts of color, some all the way to the entirely plain gray non-breeding plumage shown on the bird in the picture one further down.
Above is the full juvenal plumage, seen only infrequently away from the nesting grounds. Below, first basic
(first winter) plumage, with body feathers molted to adult plain gray and white, while the bright and strongly
striped juvenal flight feathers are retained. Most hatch-year birds in migration are seen in this plumage, or
molting to it.
Adult winter Wilson's Phalaropes with a Dowitcher, above, and a Lesser Yellowlegs, below.
