Red phalarope

Phalaropus fulicarius (Linnaeus, 1758)

The red phalarope (Phalaropus fulicarius) is a bird in the family Scolopacidae, order Charadriiformes, also called the Grey phalarope or Gray phalarope. It is a small, migratory aquatic predator of marine habitats, with adults weighing 50.2 to 61.65 g and a wingspan of 42 cm.

Photo: Mike Baird from Morro Bay, USA · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the red phalarope

It lays 4 eggs per clutch and 1 clutch per year, with an incubation period of 18.8 days and sexual maturity at 363.5 days. The IUCN Red List assesses the red phalarope globally as Least Concern, which is not a threatened category.

Weight: 50.2 g – 61.7 gsrc for Weight
Length: Not recorded
Wingspan: 42 cmsrc for Wingspan
Lifespan: 6.08 yearssrc for Lifespan
Diet: Aquatic predatorsrc for Diet
Main food: Not recorded
Habitat: marinesrc for Habitat
Egg incubation: 18.8 dayssrc for Egg incubation
Young per litter or clutch: 4src for Young per litter or clutch
Age at maturity: 11.9 monthssrc for Age at maturity
Litters or clutches a year: 1src for Litters or clutches a year
Lifestyle: Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
Migration: Migratorysrc for Migration
Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record: Not recorded

How big is the red phalarope?

At 42 cm, the recorded maximum wingspan of the red phalarope is about 25% of the height of an adult human (1.7 m, a fixed reference used for scale).

Photos of the red phalarope

Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.

Red phalarope (Phalaropus fulicarius) — Roger Culos · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Where does the red phalarope live?

Not recorded

What is the red phalarope?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The red phalarope or grey phalarope (Phalaropus fulicarius) is a small wader. This phalarope breeds in the Arctic regions of North America and Eurasia. It is migratory, and, unusually for a wader, migrates mainly on oceanic routes, wintering at sea on tropical oceans.

From the Wikipedia article “Red phalarope” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Red_phalarope&oldid=1365132034), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the red phalarope endangered?

The red phalarope is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

LCLeast Concern
NTNear Threatened
VUVulnerable
ENEndangered
CRCritically Endangered
EWExtinct in the Wild
EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.

How is the red phalarope classified?

kingdomAnimalia
phylumChordata
classAves
orderCharadriiformes
familyScolopacidae
genusPhalaropus
SpeciesPhalaropus fulicarius (Linnaeus, 1758)

Synonyms Crymophilus fulicarius, Phalaropus fulicaria, Phalaropus fulicaria fulicaria, Phalaropus fulicaria fulicaria, Phalaropus fulicaria fulicaria, Phalaropus fulicarius jourdaini, Phalaropus griseus, Phalaropus lobatus, Phalaropus platyrhynchus, Phalaropus rufescens, Phalaropus rufus, Tringa fulicana, Tringa fulicaria, Tringa glacialis

Other names and names in other languages (100)

Gray phalaropeEnglish
Grey (red) phalaropeEnglish
Grey (red) phalaropeEnglish
Grey phalaropeEnglish
Grey phalaropeEnglish
Grey/Red phalaropeEnglish
GrysfraiingpootAfrikaans
GrysfraaiingpootAfrikaans
فلروب أحمرArabic
فلروب رماديArabic
Falaropu PicogorduAsturian
falaropu picugorduAsturian
Пласканосы плывунчыкBelarusian
Тънкоклюн листоногBulgarian
Плоскоклюн листокракBulgarian
Плоскоклюн листоногBulgarian
Teleg beg ledanBreton
escuraflascons becgròsCatalan
llydandroed llwydWelsh
Adar Llydandroed LlwydWelsh
thorshaneDanish
ThorshühnchenGerman
Plattschnäbeliger WassertreterGerman
Κόκκινος φαλαρόποδαςGreek
ruĝa falaropoEsperanto
Dikbeka falaropoEsperanto
Falaropo RojoSpanish
Faláropo de Pico GruesoSpanish
Falaropo pico gruesoSpanish
Falaropo picogruesoSpanish
Pollito de mar rojizoSpanish
puna-veetallajaEstonian
Mendebal-txori mokolodiBasque
Mendebal txori mokolodiaBasque
فالاروپ بلوطیPersian
isovesipääskyFinnish
TórshaniFaroese
sundgrælingurFaroese
Phalarope rouxFrench
Phalarope à bec largeFrench
Falaróp ruaIrish
glasanScottish Gaelic
falaróp gobmhórScottish Gaelic
glasainScottish Gaelic
liathag alltScottish Gaelic
Falaropo bicogrosoGalician
Coar ghlassManx
Falaroap gob-mooarManx
ChululuGuarani
שחיינית רחבת־מקורHebrew
שחיינית רחבת מקורHebrew
שחיינית רחבת-מקורHebrew
riđa liskonogaCroatian
Plosnokljuna liskonogaCroatian
laposcsőrű víztaposóHungarian
Kaki-Rumbai MerahIndonesian
AuksruaqInupiaq
ÞórshaniIcelandic
ßórshaniIcelandic
Falaropo beccolargoItalian
ハイイロヒレアシシギJapanese
kajuaraqKalaallisut
kajoruseqKalaallisut
Ақжағал қалтқыKazakh
Ақжағал қалытқыKazakh
붉은배지느러미발도요Korean
Pyber losCornish
ThorshéngchenLuxembourgish
plokščiasnapis plaukikasLithuanian
platknābja pūslītisLatvian
Baruża GriżaMaltese
Улаан сэлээхэй - ᠣᠯᠠᠭᠠᠨ ᠰᠡᠯᠡᠬᠡᠬᠡᠢMongolian
polarsvømmesnipeNorwegian Bokmål
rosse franjepootDutch
polarsymjesnipeNorwegian Nynorsk
Snepi Seha Boca DikiPapiamento
Snepi Seha Boka DikiPapiamento
płatkonóg płaskodziobyPolish
رتا فالاروپWestern Panjabi
falaropo-de-bico-grossoPortuguese
pisa-n'água-de-bico-grossoPortuguese
Rivarel curtRomansh
Notatiţă cu cioc latRomanian
Notătiţă cu cioc latRomanian
Notătiță cu cioc latRomanian
плосконосый плавунчикRussian
StuorrabávgošNorthern Sami
ruksesbávgošNorthern Sami
lyskonoh ploskozobýSlovak
ploskokljuni liskonožecSlovenian
Siva liskonogaSerbian
Plosnokljuna liskonoga - Плоснокљуна лисконогаSerbian
brednäbbad simsnäppaSwedish
นกลอยทะเลสีเทาThai
นกลอยทะเลสีแดงThai
kızıl deniz düdükçünüTurkish
Плавунець плоскодзьобийUkrainian
灰瓣足鷸Chinese
灰瓣蹼鷸Chinese
灰瓣蹼鹬Chinese

Catalogue of Life Wikipedia iNaturalist TAXREF Wikidata WoRMS IUCN Red List

Relatives of the red phalarope

Other species in the same genus Phalaropus.

Red-necked phalarope

Phalaropus lobatus

Scolopacidae

Wilson's phalarope

Phalaropus tricolor

ScolopacidaeNo free photo yet

CompareRed phalarope vs Red-necked phalarope Red phalarope vs Wilson's phalarope

Common questions

Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.

How heavy is a red phalarope?

Adult Red phalaropes weigh from 50.2 to 61.65 g, with a representative value of 55.59 g. It is classed as a small bird.

What does the red phalarope eat?

The red phalarope is an aquatic predator and a carnivore.

Is the red phalarope endangered?

No. The IUCN Red List assesses it globally as Least Concern, which is not a threatened category.

How long does a red phalarope live?

Our sources give a lifespan of 6.1 years for the red phalarope.

How many eggs does the red phalarope lay?

It lays 4 eggs per clutch and 1 clutch per year. The eggs are incubated for 18.8 days.

Is the red phalarope migratory?

Yes, the red phalarope is migratory, and its geographic range covers 3,784,000 km².

Who named the red phalarope?

Its scientific name, Phalaropus fulicarius, carries the authority (Linnaeus, 1758).

What other names does the red phalarope have?

It is also called the Grey phalarope, Gray phalarope, Grey/Red phalarope and Grey (red) phalarope.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1
AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7
Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf
Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence).
Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service).
Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Red phalarope (Phalaropus fulicarius). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/red-phalarope

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BibTeX

@misc{red_phalarope_2026,
  title = {Red phalarope (Phalaropus fulicarius)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/red-phalarope},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}