ShoreBird

The name redshank refers to this bird's legs, which are red (as apposed to a greenshank's, which are green). Actually they're kind of orangey-red.

Wary and nervous birds, Common Redshanks are often the first to panic and give noisy alarm calls to other nearby waders.

This species prefers to nest in wetlands, such as damp meadows and salt marshes.

In breeding season, its plumage is black; in winter, gray. It breeds across sub-Arctic Eurasia and winters from the Mediterranean region into southern Asia.

Common Redshanks are monogamous and will usually return to the same nest site with the same partner year after year.

Common Redshanks feed on small invertebrates, such aquatic insects and their larvae, as well as insects, spiders and worms found on rocky, muddy or sandy shores. They feed both during the day and at nigh - highly depending on the tidal situation.

Research data in Singaporewas gleaned from the migratory flight paths of 15 birds – 10 common redshanks and five whimbrels. Of these, four birds (three common redshanks and one whimbrel) had navigated across the Himalayas 5,000m to 6,000m above sea levels during the northward migration

Central Asian Flyway: This is also the first time that shorebird migration routes across the Himalayas from Southeast Asia have been documented.

The researchers hypothesise that these birds chose to fly across the Himalayas instead of around the mountain range to reduce flying time, as the direct route reduces the distance to and from the birds' breeding grounds in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau by around 600km.

Greenshanks are grey birds with greenish legs and a white rump. Rather slender, about 30 cm (12 inches) long, they are deep waders and have a long, slightly upturned bill.

Greenshanks breed in northern Europe and Asia during the summer, and they winter in southern Europe, Asia, Africa, and occasionally as far south as Tasmania and New Zealand.

Greenshanks eat insects, worms, molluscs, small fish and crustaceans, feeding both by day and night. They feed by picking from the surface, probing, sweeping and lunging at the edges of mudflats or shallows. They may walk along the shoreline and even chase small fish in the shallow water.

Long, down-curved bill is designed for the extraction of animals burrowed in the mud. Whimbrel is also known as "elephant birds" in some parts of the world thanks to unusual shape of the bill.

Whimbrel migrates in large flocks during the autumn. Some populations of whimbrels fly 4000km miles non-stop before they finally reach their wintering grounds.

In many regions, the primary winter food of the Whimbrel is fiddler crab. The curve of the Whimbrel's bill nicely matches the shape of fiddler crab burrows. The bird reaches into the crab's burrow, extracts the crab, washes it if it is muddy, and sometimes breaks off the claws and legs before swallowing it. Indigestible parts are excreted in fecal pellets.

During their migration, Pacific golden plovers make the phenomenal 4800 km non-stop flight between Alaska and Hawaii in 3-4 days.

When sensing danger, parent golden plovers have an interesting distracting technique; they pretend to be injured and this way lead the predator away from the nest with young.

A Pacific Golden Plover ringed at Sungei Buloh has also been recovered overseas. A bird ringed on 10 Jan 1996 was recovered on 22 May 1998 in the Russian province of Yakutia.

the adult plover exhibits two distinctive plumage in one year. In Sungei Buloh, the winter plumage of brown and some golden spangling on the wings is the one normally seen. However, during late July and August when the first plovers arrive at Sungei Buloh and especially in April when the last few birds fly off to their breeding areas, one can usually spot some individuals in full breeding plumage.

They breeds above the tree line in the Himalayas and across to bare coastal plains in north-eastern Siberia, it has also bred in Alaska. It nests in a bare ground scrape, laying three eggs.

This species is strongly migratory, wintering on sandy beaches in east Africa, south Asia and Australasia

They hunt by sight, rather than by feel as longer-billed waders like snipes do. They feed mainly on insects, worms or other invertebrates, depending on the habitat, which are obtained by a run-and-pause technique, rather than the steady probing of some other wader groups.