Turnstone

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Turnstone
Ruddy turnstone in nonbreeding plumage
Black turnstone in winter plumage
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Scolopacidae
Subfamily: Arenarinae
Genus: Arenaria
Brisson, 1760
Type species
Tringa interpres
Linnaeus, 1758
Species

Arenaria interpres

Arenaria melanocephala

Synonyms
  • Arenarius Dumont, 1805
  • Morinella Meyer in Meyer & Wolf, 1810
  • Strepsialis Hay, 1841
  • Strepsilas Illiger, 1811
  • Strepsilus Nuttall, 1834
  • Stripsilas Stephens in Shaw, 1819
  • Stripselas Stephens in Shaw, 1819

Turnstones are two

calidrid sandpipers and might be considered members of the tribe Calidriini.[1]

The genus Arenaria was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 with the ruddy turnstone (Arenaria interpres) as the type species.[2][3] The genus name arenaria is from Latin arenarius, "inhabiting sand", from arena, "sand".[4]

The genus contains two species: the ruddy turnstone (Arenaria interpres) and the black turnstone (Arenaria melanocephala).[5] Both birds are waders. Their length is typically between 20 and 25 cm, with a wingspan between 50 and 60 cm and a body mass between 110 and 130g. For waders their build is stocky, with short, slightly upturned, wedge shaped bills. They have white patches on the back, wings and tail. They are high Arctic breeders, and are migratory. Their strong necks and powerful, slightly upturned bills are adapted to their feeding technique. As the name implies, these species overturn stones, seaweed, and similar items in search of invertebrate prey.[6] They are strictly coastal, prefer stony beaches to sand, and often share beach space with other species of waders such as purple sandpipers.

Species

Ruddy turnstone in breeding plumage

Ruddy turnstone

The

AEWA
) applies.

In breeding plumage, this is a showy bird, with a black-and-white head, chestnut back, white underparts and red legs. The drabber winter plumage is basically brown above and white below. This is a generally tame bird and is an opportunist feeder. Unlike most waders, it will scavenge, and has a phenomenal list of recorded food items, including human corpses and coconut. The call is a staccato tuck- tuck- tuck.

Black turnstone

Black turnstone in summer plumage

The black turnstone (Arenaria melanocephala) has a similar structure to its widespread relative, but has black upperparts and chest, and white below. It has a much more restricted range than the ruddy turnstone, breeding in western Alaska, and wintering mainly on the Pacific coast of the United States.

There exists a

plesiomorphic
, it may be an ancestral representative of either lineage.

References

  1. PMID 15329156. Supplementary Material Archived 2013-08-02 at archive.today
  2. ^ Brisson, Mathurin Jacques (1760). Ornithologie, ou, Méthode Contenant la Division des Oiseaux en Ordres, Sections, Genres, Especes & leurs Variétés (in French and Latin). Paris: Jean-Baptiste Bauche. Vol. 1, p. 48, Vol. 5, p. 132.
  3. ^ Peters, James Lee, ed. (1934). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 2. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 271.
  4. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4
    .
  5. ^ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2019). "Buttonquail, plovers, seedsnipe, sandpipers". World Bird List Version 9.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  6. ISBN 978-0007268146
  7. JSTOR 1363487
    .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Arenaria (Scolopacidae).
Wikispecies has information related to Corvus capensis.
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