About the Huahou

AKA the Red Knot

The huahou gets its name from the rich reddish breeding plumage they have during February and March. They only get dressed up in the late summer as the rest of the year they have serious business to attend to – migrating between Aotearoa and Russia (no big deal). After all that hard mahi, they deserve to put on a little rouge.The New Zealand population has declined from almost 60,000 in the early 1990s to about 30,000 in the 2010s.

~ birdoftheyear.org.nz

~ Photo credit - Chuck Homler (Wikemedia Commons)

Length: 24cm
Weight: 105g
Conservation Status: Declining

For most of the year, the Red Knot is not very red. They only gain a red plumage during breeding season. Otherwise they are a plain grey.
They feed in flocks on tidal flats, and breed as monogamous pairs on high Arctic tundra. Chick-rearing is shared between the parents, and their children leave the nest soon after hatching.
Red Knots mainly eat small molluscs. They swallow the molluscs whole, then crush their meal with strong gizzards.
Not much is known about this bird's long-distance migrations, but they have been found congregating in certain areas in China and Russia.
Two of the six subspecies of Red Knot are found in Aotearoa.