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Ruddy turnstones are fairly drab medium-sized shorebirds when seen in the continental US, but during their brief breeding period in the high Arctic they molt into a very colorful rusty + white + black plumage. I photographed the breeding-plumage birds on the tundra near Barrow, Alaska. The turnstones at upper right and lower right are molting from winter into summer plumage; they were photographed in coastal California. The closely-related black turnstone, as its name implies, has an overall blackish plumage in both summer and winter. |
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