Description The Red Knot is a medium sized shore bird. The winter plumage is pale grey and males and females are similar in appearance. The breeding plumage is mottled grey with reddish brown face throat and breast. The females breeding plumage is similar to the male but not so bright with less prominent eye line. The legs are fairly short and dark and the bill is dark
Size 25 cm long with 50 cm wing span
Habitat mudflats where they feed by probing for food in the mud
Food mollusks and other shellfish, crabs, also insects and spiders
Breeding the red knot nests near water, usually inland. The nest is a shallow scrape in the ground lined with leaves and mos. It does not breed in Australia.
Range the Red Knot breeds in the Arctic in the far north of Canada, Europe, and Russia. It migrates to the southern hemisphere in northern winter and is a visitor to coastline of northern parts of Australia.
Credits: Map is from Atlas of Living Australia website at https://biocache.ala.org.au licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
