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The UK Bird Atlas

Wilson's Phalarope (Phalaropus tricolor)Where and when to see it in the UK

Passage migrant · reporting peaks September · Sandpipers and Allies · BOU category A

Records to 2026-08-16 · build 2026-08-31

Wilson's Phalarope (Phalaropus tricolor)
Cephas, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Wilson's Phalarope: relative reporting rate by 10 km square, September

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (grid squares, place names from OS Open Names). Northern Ireland place names: OSNI Open Data, OGL v3.0. County and country boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Coastline: Natural Earth. Bird records from the data partners listed here.

Wilson's Phalarope has been recorded in 23 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (1%) in records to 2026. Passage migrant in the UK. Its strongest squares are in England and Scotland. Reporting peaks in September.

Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN Red List, LC)
View on the IUCN Red List
Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
100% or more of visits
High
9% to 100%
Moderate
2% to 9%
Low
under 2%
Surveyed, not recorded
at least 20 qualifying visits, no record
Insufficient records
too few visits to say
Lighter fill
Few visits, lower confidence
Small dot
Occasional: a single record, or out of season

Seasonality

Reporting rate by month, relative to the peak month
MonthRelative to peakShare of visitsTypical class
January 0%<1%Insufficient records
February 0%<1%Insufficient records
March 0%<1%Insufficient records
April 0%<1%Insufficient records
May 1%<1%Low
June 0%<1%Low
July 0%<1%Insufficient records
August 0%<1%Insufficient records
September 100%<1%Moderate
October 80%<1%Low
November 10%<1%High
December 0%<1%Insufficient records

Squares with the highest reporting rate in September

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
ND49Orkney Islands, Scotland100%Very high
SD41Lancashire, England100%Very high
SV81Isles of Scilly, England100%Very high
SW53Cornwall, England100%Very high
SD32Lancashire, England30%High
SD31Lancashire, England10%High
TL91Essex, England9%High
TQ78Essex, England9%High
TF94Norfolk, England8%Moderate
SJ37Cheshire West and Chester, England7%Moderate

Spotted an error in a square? Report it and it goes into the review queue. Read the methodology for how classes, flags and sensitive-species rules work. Data to 2026.