#ABArare - Red-necked Stint - Kansas

On July 1, Mary Pat Haddicon and Barry Jones found a Red-necked Stint (Code 3) at the northeast corner of the Little Salt Marsh at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge is located about 100 miles northwest of Wichita. You can find a map of the refuge here. Little Salt Marsh is at the bottom of the map.

If accepted, this would be a first state record for Kansas. The bird was seen throughout the day on July 2, but it has not been seen since then.

 

photos by David Seibel

Red-necked (formerly Rufous-necked) Stint is a rare breeder in Alaska and a regular migrant along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, most often recorded in July and August (but failed breeders leave southbound in June).  This Asian species primarily breeds in Arctic areas of Siberia from the Laptev Sea eastward. On their breeding grounds they select for cotton grass bogs , low, dry tundra, and high tundra.  In migration they prefer muddy or sandy tidal flats and lakeshores (The Shorebird Guide, O’Brien et al.).

The wintering Australasian population has been estimated at 471,000 birds.  The two most important Australian wintering areas are Coorong and Eighty Mile Beach. The wintering population in New Zealand has increased significantly since the late 1950s (Handbook of the Birds of the World, Volume 3).