Common Redshank

The Common Redshank is a medium-sized sandpiper with brown-gray, streaked upperparts and paler, lightly marked underparts, but its most distinctive features are its bright orange-red legs and the orange-red base to its otherwise dark bill.

In flight it shows a bold white trailing edge to the wings and a white rump, features that make it easily identifiable even at a distance, especially in flocks.

It is notoriously wary and vocal, often the first bird in a wetland to spot danger and take flight while calling loudly, a habit that has earned it the nickname "warden of the marshes" among European birdwatchers, since its alarm calls alert other wetland birds to approaching threats.

Key field marks

• Bright orange-red legs
• Orange-red base to an otherwise dark-tipped bill
• Bold white trailing edge to the wings, conspicuous in flight
• White rump, visible in flight

Similar species

• Spotted Redshank has longer, darker legs and a longer, thinner bill, and lacks the white wing trailing edge.
• Common Greenshank is larger with greenish (not red) legs and an upturned bill.

Common Redshanks breed in wet grasslands, salt marshes, and moorland across much of Europe and Asia. Outside the breeding season they concentrate on coastal estuaries, mudflats, and salt marshes across western Europe, Africa, and southern Asia, often in large, wary flocks.

Voice

A loud, ringing, repeated teu-hu-hu or tyu alarm call, given persistently at the slightest disturbance, earning the species a reputation as an effective sentinel for other wetland birds.

Feeding

Probes and picks in mud, wet grassland, and shallow water for worms, mollusks, insects, and crustaceans.

Nesting

Nests on the ground in a shallow, grass-lined scrape concealed among tussocks in wet meadows or salt marsh. Both parents share incubation and are highly vigilant, calling loudly and flying up at the first hint of danger near the nest.