Red-necked Phalarope

How to find it

Plan on going to sea, and look over open water rather than at mud or shallows. Birders have seen it on pelagic trips that leave from Cabuya, at the tip of the Nicoya Peninsula. The birds are often seen well out at sea, so patience and sharp observation matter. Scan the water for small birds spinning in tight circles. Fall migration offers the best odds, since one study calls it abundant then. It is described as an uncommon sighting, so treat any view as a bonus.

How to recognise it

Birds seen in Costa Rica are usually in the duller non-breeding plumage. In that dress, look for these marks:

Pale gray upperparts with white streaks.

A white face and white underparts.

A dark ear patch.

A thin black bill.

Breeding females are brighter than males, with a dark gray head, white throat and a chestnut-red neck patch. That finery belongs to the breeding season, so it is not what most visitors will meet here. For a beginner, the dark ear patch against the white face and the thin, all-black bill are the two marks to check first.

What it sounds like

Recording: joshuagsmith, CC0 1.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

The Red-necked Phalarope feeds by spinning in small, fast circles on the water. This makes a little whirlpool that brings food up to the surface. It does not dive. At sea it picks zooplankton, small crustaceans and small mollusks from the water surface.

A birding blog describes flocks on a Pacific pelagic trip as riding the waves like gray and brown bathtub toys.

Where it lives

The species spends nearly all of its winter in open water. In Costa Rica visitors are most likely to meet it on the Pacific side, over the sea off the coast, and one article says it prefers open ocean to mud or shallows.

Earlier records are more varied. They come from the Nicoya Peninsula and Guanacaste, including Salina Bonilla in the Gulf of Nicoya and later Guanacaste rice fields. The National Museum also holds an 1892 specimen from San Francisco de Desamparados in the Central Valley, and the bird was recorded again in that metropolitan area in 2019.

When to see it

A lodge article says birds can be seen along the Pacific coast during migration, in March to May and again in August to October. One study reports it as an abundant fall migrant, August to November, and a rare spring migrant, with numbers peaking in late May and late August.

Similar birds

In non-breeding plumage it looks like Red Phalarope, but its bill is thin and all black, while the Red Phalarope's bill is thicker and less pointed. It differs from Wilson's Phalarope by its black ear patch.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

The Costa Rican Spanish name is Falaropo picofino. Other countries use different names, such as Falaropo cuellirrojo in Colombia and Nicaragua.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list marks it as M, a migrant, and the IUCN lists it as Least Concern, so it is not globally threatened.

Photography tips

The birds are often seen well out at sea, so patience and sharp observation are the main tools. Look for the small spinning circles on the water to find them.