Wilson's Phalarope is the largest phalarope and the only one that lacks webbed feet, breeding inland on prairie wetlands rather than at sea. Like all phalaropes, roles are reversed — the more colorful female establishes territory, courts the male, and leaves him to incubate and raise the young. It feeds by spinning rapidly on the water surface to create a vortex that draws prey upward.
Habitat
Prairie marshes in summer; saline lakes in late summer
Diet
Aquatic invertebrates and brine shrimp
How common
Common
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