All species › Waders, gulls and terns › Sandpipers and allies › Ruddy Turnstone
Position in the tree Birds Aves › Birds with a flexible palate Neognathae › All other modern birds Neoaves › Birds of the elements Elementaves › Cranes and waders Gruimorphae
Ruddy Turnstone | Arenaria interpres
Steenloper | Vuelvepiedras común
The Ruddy Turnstone is a stocky, short-legged wader with a boldly patterned head and breast and short orange legs, which uses its short, wedge-shaped bill to flip over stones, seaweed and debris in search of food. It breeds on the Arctic tundra and is a common winter visitor and passage migrant along both coasts of the guide area; because many immature birds stay in the south, it is also present in summer.
Voice
A dry, rattling tuk-a-tuk-tuk or kut-a-kut, often on take-off, and a short kyuk. Flocks call a lot while feeding.
Recording: David Darrell-Lambert — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
22–24 cm, with a short, slightly upturned black bill and short orange legs. In non-breeding plumage the upperparts are dark grey-brown, with a blackish, irregular breast band extending to the throat and the side of the neck, and a white throat and belly. In spring birds acquire breeding plumage: a rufous, black-spotted back and a black-and-white patterned head. Juveniles are somewhat paler, with pale-fringed feathers on the back and duller legs. In flight a pied pattern: a white wing bar, white patches on the back and shoulder, a white rump and a black band across the tail.
Confusion species
Black Turnstone Arenaria melanocephala, along the Pacific coast of northwestern Mexico, is blackish-brown on the head and breast, without a pied head pattern, and has dull red legs. Other waders of beaches and rocky shores, such as Sanderling Calidris alba, are much paler and lack the black breast markings and the orange legs. Red Knot Calidris canutus is plainer grey, with a longer, straight bill.
Habitat
Sand and shingle beaches with stranded seaweed, rocky shores, breakwaters, piers and harbour quays, also tidal flats, the edges of lagoons and salt pans, and small islets and cays. It eats crustaceans, molluscs, insects and carrion; it turns over stones and seaweed and also takes fish scraps and food waste. At high tide flocks rest on rocks, jetties and quays.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Winter visitor and passage migrant along both coasts of the entire guide area: on the Pacific side from Baja California and the Gulf of California to Panama, on the Atlantic side from Tamaulipas via the Yucatán Peninsula, Belize and the Caribbean coast of Central America to Panama, including offshore islands. Rare inland. Outside the guide area the species breeds on the Arctic tundra around the North Pole and winters along coasts almost worldwide.
- Winter visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Fishing harbours, piers, breakwaters and beaches with stranded seaweed, where the birds are often quite tame. The low, stocky silhouette with short orange legs is recognisable even at a distance.
Conservation status
Near Threatened. The world population is declining, mainly through the loss of resting and feeding areas along the migration routes. In the guide area undisturbed beaches and coastal lagoons are disappearing through coastal development and recreation.
Scientific name
Arenaria interpres | (Linnaeus, 1758)
Linnaeus described the species in 1758 as Tringa Interpres; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Arenaria was introduced in 1760 by Brisson. Arenaria is from Latin arenarius 'inhabiting sand', from arena 'sand'. interpres is Latin for 'messenger' or 'interpreter': on Gotland Linnaeus took the Swedish word tolk to apply to this bird, but in the local dialect it means 'legs' and refers to the redshank. The specimen the first description was based on came from Gotland, Sweden.