Distribution

One of few shorebird species with Holarctic breeding distribution.

Breeding Range

Figure 1 . Alaska. Breeds in nw. and n. Alaska, including Seward Peninsula where it is widely dispersed along the Northern Uplands (Kessel 1989), De Long Mtns., and (rarely) Point Barrow and Cooper I. (Am. Ornithol. Union 1998). More recently (1989–2000), extensive point count surveys of montane nesting shorebirds throughout the Seward Peninsula and e. Baird Mtn. north of Kotzebue have documented extensive nesting by knots that, at a minimum, represent a few thousand birds and likely more considering the extent of preferred habitat available in these areas and farther east (R. Gill pers. comm.).

Canada. Breeds in n. Canada from n. Ellesmere I. south through middle- and high-arctic islands to n. Hudson Bay. Specifically, breeds from Prince Patrick I., Mackenzie King I., Ellef Ringnes I., Axel Heiberg I., and n. Ellesmere I. (Alert) south to Melville I., Prince of Wales I., Somerset I., and Devon I. Also breeds farther south on King William I., s. Victoria I., e. Melville Peninsula, and (possibly) Adelaide Peninsula, and in n. Hudson Bay on Coats I. and Southampton I., and possibly on Mansel I. (Godfrey 1992, Am. Ornithol. Union 1998).

Winter Range

Winters very locally at coastal sites from Humboldt Co., CA (Small 1994), rarely north to extreme sw. British Columbia (Campbell et al. 1990, Gilligan et al. 1994), and from Massachusetts (Veit and Petersen 1993) very casually farther north, except in s. Nova Scotia, where a few winter regularly (Christmas Bird Count data), south along Pacific, Atlantic, and Gulf Coasts of the U.S. and along Pacific and Atlantic Coasts of Middle and South America (including both coasts of Baja California) to Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, although absent from Atlantic Coasts of Costa Rica and Panama except for Canal Zone (Ridgely and Gwynne 1989, Stiles and Skutch 1989, Howell and Webb 1995, Am. Ornithol. Union 1998). Has been recorded in winter in Bermuda and West Indies (except Lesser Antilles, where regular only on Barbados), but probably not a widespread or regular winter resident in these areas (Amos 1991, Raffaele et al. 1998).

For breeding and winter ranges of specific subspecies, see Systematics, below.

Other Records

Casual or accidental on islands in the Bering Sea, and in the Galápagos Is. and Bolivia (Am. Ornithol. Union 1998).

Breeding Range

In n. and ne. Greenland (full extent of breeding distribution in interior unknown; Boertmann 1994), Spitsbergen (rarely), and the Taymyr Peninsula, New Siberian Is., and Wrangel I. in n.-central Russia (Cramp and Simmons 1983, Engelmoer and Roselaar 1998).

Winter Range

From the British Isles, s. Europe (countries sharing coastlines of the North Sea, and coast of France), Black Sea, India, Southeast Asia, and Philippines south to central Africa (principally on w. African coasts of Mauritania and Guinea-Bissau, with smaller numbers in South Africa; Underhill and Summers 1992), the Australasian region (principally Australia and New Zealand), and casually to Azores and Sri Lanka (Cramp and Simmons 1983, Am. Ornithol. Union 1998).

Other Records

Casual in Hawaiian Is. (Kaua‘i I., O‘ahu I.; Am. Ornithol. Union 1998). For breeding and winter ranges of specific subspecies, see Systematics, below.

None reported with respect to recent breeding range (but see Engelmoer and Roselaar 1998).

Evidently historical shifts of migration staging sites used by rufa have occurred within the last 100 yr. As described elsewhere (see Migration, below), the principal U.S. spring staging site of rufa is the Delaware Bay. Today only low numbers are reported during spring from Massachusetts Bay. Yet Mackay (1893) reported many thousands on Massachusetts shorelines during late May and early Jun in the late 1800s; his account indicates that this was not an isolated event.

No information.