Wilson's Phalarope Patch

#73 Wilson's Phalarope

Phalaropes are unusual shorebirds. They spin around in water to bring up food and they reverse the typical sex role in birds: females are more colorful and do the courtship, and the drabber males incubate the eggs and care for the young. The Wilson’s Phalarope nests on prairie marshes and then gathers in enormous flocks on salty lakes in the West, where it doubles its body weight ahead of a long migration to South America.

This patch celebrates the Center for Biological Diversity’s work to protect the Great Salt Lake and the species that rely upon it, like this one.