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Information about Turnstone

Turnstones
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Ruddy Turnstone

Ruddy Turnstone
Enlarge picture
Black Turnstone

Black Turnstone
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Aves
Order:Charadriiformes
Family:Scolopacidae
Genus:Arenaria
Brisson, 1760
Species


Arenaria interpres
Arenaria melanocephala


Turnstones are two bird species, the Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres), and the Black Turnstone (Arenaria melanocephala), in the family Scolopacidae. They are closely related to calidrid sandpipers (Thomas et al., 2004).

Both birds are distinctive medium-sized waders. They are high Arctic breeders, and are migratory. These chunky powerful birds have strong necks and bills well suited to their feeding technique. As the name implies, these species readily turn stones or seaweed looking for hidden invertebrates. They are strictly coastal, preferring stony beaches to sand, and are often found with other waders such as Purple Sandpipers.

Their appearance is striking in flight, with white patches on the back, wings and tail.

The Ruddy Turnstone (or just Turnstone in Europe) has a circumpolar distribution, and is a very long distance migrant, wintering on coasts as far south as South Africa and Australia. It is thus a common sight on coasts almost everywhere in the world.

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".

The Ruddy Turnstone is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.

The Black Turnstone 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 USA.

Its habits are generally similar to Ruddy, but it has a snipe-like aerial breeding display, and a higher-pitched, more fluid call.




Ruddy Turnstone in breeding plumage.

Black Turnstone in breeding plumage.


References

External links

Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. Scientific classification also can be called scientific taxonomy, but should be distinguished from folk taxonomy, which lacks scientific basis.
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Chordata
Bateson, 1885

Typical Classes

See below

Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates.
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Aves
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders

About two dozen - see section below

Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals.
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Charadriiformes
Huxley, 1867

Families

Scolopacidae
Rostratulidae
Jacanidae
Thinocoridae
Pedionomidae
Laridae
Rhynchopidae
Sternidae
Alcidae
Stercorariidae
Glareolidae
Dromadidae
Turnicidae
Burhinidae
Chionididae
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Scolopacidae
Vigors, 1825

Genera
  • Actitis
  • Aphriza
  • Arenaria
  • Bartramia
  • Calidris
  • Coenocorypha
  • Eurynorhynchus
  • Gallinago
  • Limicola

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Mathurin Jacques Brisson (April 30, 1723 – June 23, 1806) was a French zoologist and natural philosopher.

Brisson was born at Fontenay-le-Comte. The earlier part of his life was spent in the pursuit of natural history, his published works in this department including
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A. interpres

Binomial name
Arenaria interpres
(Linnaeus, 1758)

The Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres) is a small wading bird, one of two species of turnstone in the genus
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A. melanocephala

Binomial name
Arenaria melanocephala
(Vigors, 1829)

The Black Turnstone (Arenaria melanocephala) is a species of small wading bird.
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Scolopacidae
Vigors, 1825

Genera
  • Actitis
  • Aphriza
  • Arenaria
  • Bartramia
  • Calidris
  • Coenocorypha
  • Eurynorhynchus
  • Gallinago
  • Limicola

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calidrids or typical waders are a group of Arctic-breeding, strongly migratory wading birds. These birds form huge mixed flocks on coasts and estuaries in winter. They are the typical "peeps", small to medium-sized, long-winged and relatively short-billed.
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Charadrii

Families
  • Ibidorhynchidae
  • Recurvirostridae
  • Haematopodidae
  • Charadriidae
Waders, called shorebirds in North America (where "wader" is used to refer to long-legged wading birds such as storks and herons), are members
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Arctic is the region around the Earth's North Pole, opposite the Antarctic region around the South Pole. In the northern hemisphere, the Arctic includes the Arctic Ocean (which overlies the North Pole) and parts of Canada, Greenland (a territory of Denmark), Russia, the United
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Bird migration refers to the regular seasonal journeys undertaken by many species of birds. Migrations include movements of varied distances made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather.
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Invertebrate is an English word that describes any animal without a spinal column. The group includes 97% of all animal species — all animals except those in the Chordate subphylum Vertebrata (fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals).
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C. maritima

Binomial name
Calidris maritima
Brünnich, 1764

Synonyms

Erolia maritima

The Purple Sandpiper, Calidris or Erolia maritima is a small shorebird.
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Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of the Earth. Physically and geologically, Europe is the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, west of Asia. Europe is bounded to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Mediterranean Sea,
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Anthem
Advance Australia Fair [1]


Capital Canberra

Largest city Sydney
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Plumage refers both to the layer of feathers that cover a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage vary between species and subspecies and can also vary between different age classes, sexes, and season.
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Cocos

Species: C. nucifera

Binomial name
Cocos nucifera
L.
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The AEWA - The Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds - is an independent international treaty developed under the auspices of the UNEP/Convention on Migratory Species.
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Alaska

Flag of Alaska Seal
Nickname(s): The Last Frontier
Motto(s): "North to the Future"

Official language(s) None[1]
Spoken language(s) English 85.7%,
Native North American 5.
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Earth's oceans
(World Ocean)
  • Arctic Ocean
  • Atlantic Ocean
  • Indian Ocean
  • Pacific Ocean
  • Southern Ocean


The Pacific Ocean (from the Latin name Mare Pacificum
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Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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Snipe is any of nearly 20 very similar wading bird species in three genera in the family Scolopacidae. They characterised by a very long slender bill and cryptic plumage. The Gallinago snipes have a nearly worldwide distribution, the Lymnocryptes
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The BMC-series of journals are a collection of 61 online research journals published by BioMed Central. Like all BioMed Central journals, they have a policy of Open access to the research articles they publish.
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digital object identifier (or DOI) is a permanent identifier given to a document, which is not related to its current location. A typical use of a DOI is to give a scientific paper or article a unique identifying number that can be used by anyone to locate details of the paper, and
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