Red Knot
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| Red Knot Conservation status: Lower risk (lc) | ||||||||||||||
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 Red Knots (winter plumage) | ||||||||||||||
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| Calidris canutus Linnaeus, 1758 |
The Red Knot, Calidris canutus (just Knot in Europe), is a small shorebird.
Adults have short dark legs and a medium thin dark bill. The body is mottled grey on top with cinnamon face, throat and breast and light-coloured rear belly. In winter the plumage becomes uniformly pale grey.
Their breeding habitat is tundra in the far north of Canada, Europe and Russia. They nest on the ground near water, usually inland. The female lays 3 to 4 eggs in a shallow scrape lined with leaves and moss. Both parents look after the young, but the female leaves before the young are able to fly.
They migrate to coastal areas on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts in winter, as far south as Argentina. Old World birds migrate to the Mediterranean, the British Isles, Africa and Australasia. This species forms enormous flocks in winter.
These birds forage on mudflats and beaches, probing or picking up food by sight. They mainly eat mollusks and insects, also plant material.
Near the end of the 19th century, large numbers were shot for food during migration in North America. This bird's numbers have declined in more recent times due to extensive harvesting of Horseshoe crabs in Delaware Bay, a critical stopover point during spring migration; the birds refuel by eating the eggs laid by these crabs.
It is sometimes said that this bird gets its name from King Cnut, but there is no factual basis for this story. A more likely etymology is that the name is onomatopoeic, based on the bird's grunting call note.
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