Phalaropus fulicarius
Silhouette: Oscar G. Miranda · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
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.
In 1750, the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the red phalarope in the third volume of his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds. He used the English name "The Red-footed Tringa". Edwards based his hand-coloured etching on a preserved specimen that had been brought to London from the Hudson Bay area of Canada by James Isham. When the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the tenth edition in 1758, he included the red phalarope and placed it with phalaropes and sandpipers in the genus Tringa. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Tringa fulicaria and cited Edwards' work. The red phalarope is now one of three species placed in the genus Phalaropus that was introduced in 1760 by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
The English and genus names for... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Svalbard | 🇳🇴 Norway | |
| 2 | Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 3 | El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 4 | Sierra de Guadarrama National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 5 | Fertő-Hanság National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 6 | Machalilla National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 7 | Galápagos Islands | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 8 | Great Bear Rainforest | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 9 | Bahía de Loreto National Park | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 10 | Doñana National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 11 | Channel Islands National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 12 | Redwood National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 13 | Manuel Antonio National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 14 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 15 | Acadia National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 16 | Point Pelee National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 17 | Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dakar | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 2 | Kyiv | 🇺🇦 Ukraine | |
| 3 | Washington | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Houston | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Birmingham | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 6 | Warsaw | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 7 | San Diego | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | San Francisco | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Toronto | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 10 | Manchester | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Monterey Bay Aquarium | 🇺🇸 United States |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Red Phalarope sighting in Sierra de Guadarrama National Park on a given day, based on 87 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 149th most-seen of the 202 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Red Phalarope in Sierra de Guadarrama National Park on a given day, against under 5% in December to October, the lowest months. That is one of Sierra de Guadarrama National Park's wettest months, with about 110 mm of rain against 20 mm in July.
Between 1 and 4 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Red Phalarope sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
4th of 17
Of the 17 parks where we can rate Red Phalarope sightings, Sierra de Guadarrama National Park ranks 4th at under 5%. The best odds are in Svalbard (Norway, about 20%), Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve (Costa Rica, under 5%) and El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve (Mexico, under 5%).
Same family: Scolopacidae
The closest relatives of the Red Phalarope that you can see in Sierra de Guadarrama National Park (family Scolopacidae, Sandpipers and Allies) are Common Sandpiper (about 10%) and Green Sandpiper (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Red Phalarope is recorded against all the birds logged in Sierra de Guadarrama National Park (87 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
