Grey-tailed Tattler

Description:

Current IUCN Red List category: Near Threatened. • Small wading bird with a largely grey plumage. • Grey-tailed Tattlers catch crabs by probing into their burrows, or fishing in shallow waters. Once caught, the crab is held in the bird’s bill and shaken to remove its legs. • Diet in the non-breeding season largely comprising crabs, along with other crustaceans, polychaetes, molluscs, insects and occasionally fish

Habitat:

Native and breeds in May to late August in northern montane taiga and forest tundra, along rivers and streams and on the stone or pebble shorelines of lakes in Siberia and take refuge in warmer countries during winter including the Philippines with a few reaching New Zealand. On migration, it is predominantly coastal, but may occur at inland wetlands such as paddyfields.

Notes:

This species has been up-listed to Near Threatened owing to evidence that it is undergoing a moderately rapid population decline, driven by on-going habitat loss and degradation, disturbance and hunting pressure. Although the grey-tailed tattler is not globally threatened, it is considered to be Critically Endangered in the state of Victoria, Australia.