Red Phalarope

Phalaropus fulicarius

IUCN status: Least concern

Identification

Small (20–22 cm), swimming sandpiper with lobed toes. Non-breeding: upperparts pale gray, neck and underparts white, crown white with variable amounts of black, and blackish eye-patch present. Bill black, often with yellowish tinge at extreme base; legs gray. Breeding plumage distinct: mostly red.

Confusing Species

Red-necked Phalarope

Distribution

Distribution

No ordinary distribution in Australia.

Migratory habits

Migrates south to seas around South America and Africa.

Breeding

Breeds in northern Eurasia, Canada and Greenland.

Sightings of Red Phalarope in Australia

Location	State	Sighting period
Lake Woorinen	VIC	Feb 1976 to Mar 1976
McGrath Flat	SA	7/07/1989
Port Fairy	VIC	12/07/1992
Lake Mitchel	QLD	4/11/2003
Chistmas Island	IOT	31/10/2004
Greenough River	WA	13/03/2012
Roebuck Bay	WA	15/12/2017
Leanyer Sewage Ponds	NT	21/01/2014

References

Geering, Andrew, Lindsay Agnew, and Sandra Harding, eds. Shorebirds of Australia. Csiro Publishing, 2007.
eBird. 2021. eBird: An online database of bird distribution and abundance [web application]. eBird, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Available: http://www.ebird.org (Accessed: Date 12/4/2026)
Rogers A, Fuller RA & Amano T (2023) Australia’s migratory shorebirds: Trends and prospects. Report to the National Environmental Science Program. University of Queensland, Brisbane.
Driessen, J., Kidd, L. R., Weller, D. R., Purnell, C., Maguire, G., Jaensch, R., and LeClair, S. M. (2025). Australian National Directory of Important Migratory Shorebird Habitat. Report for the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. BirdLife Australia, Melbourne.
https://sproggies63.github.io/birding_apps/
Tracy, D. M., D. Schamel, and J. Dale (2020). Red Phalarope (Phalaropus fulicarius), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.redpha1.01