Ruddy Turnstone Wading Bird - Arenaria interpres

by Carol Senske

Title

Ruddy Turnstone Wading Bird - Arenaria interpres

Artist

Carol Senske

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Photograph - Photograph

Description

These adorable little wading birds are readily seen along the New Jersey, USA shore during spring, summer, and fall. This one is in non-breeding plumage but still beautiful. They range almost everywhere and subspecies do exist. This picture was taken in late September, 2012, on Island Beach State Park in New Jersey, USA.

To quote Wikipedia on how they feed:

"Ruddy Turnstones engage in a variety of behaviors to locate and capture prey. These behaviors can be placed into six general categories:[3]

Routing — The Turnstone manipulates piles of seaweed through flicking, bulldozing, and pecking to expose small crustaceans or gastropod molluscs hidden underneath.

Turning stones — As per its name, the Turnstone flicks stones with its bill to uncover hidden littorinids and gammarid amphipods.

Digging — With small flicks of its bill, the Turnstone creates holes in the ground substrate (usually sand or mud) and then pecks at the exposed prey - often sandhoppers or seaweed flies.

Probing — The Turnstone inserts its bill more than a quarter-length into the ground to get at littorinids and other gastropods.

Hammer–probing — The Turnstone cracks open its prey's shell by using its bill as a hammer, and then extracts the animal inside through pecking and probing.[4]

Surface pecking — The Turnstone uses short, shallow pecks (less than a quarter bill-length) to get at prey at or just below the ground's surface."

It's fun to watch them as they root through stuff and flip stones to find food. Here are a couple sites with good write ups.

http://www.nhptv.org/natureworks/ruddyturnstone.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruddy_Turnstone

Uploaded

May 7th, 2013

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