Red Knot

The red knot is a medium-sized shorebird that breeds on tundra in the far north of Canada, Europe and Russia, with six recognised subspecies. Its body shape is typical for the genus, with a small head and eyes, a short neck and a slightly tapering bill no longer than its head. It has one of the longest migrations of any landbird, and some birds of one subspecies travel more than 14,000 km each way between the Arctic and the southern tip of South America (Wikipedia, general species account).

Small and declining numbers of one subspecies, and possibly of a later-described one, winter on the mudflats of the Gulf of Mannar and the east coast of India. Its diet changes with the season: arthropods and larvae are preferred on the breeding grounds and hard-shelled molluscs at other feeding sites. Both sexes incubate the eggs, but the female leaves parental care to the male after hatching. SoIB 2023 lists it as a winter migrant of wetland that eats invertebrates, without a priority category (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).