Here is a photo that was very recently posted on the Internet Bird Collection. It was taken last summer on an island off the coast of Germany and shows a phalarope apparently picking something off the feathers of a turnstone (the bird that this blog is named for). Though someone who is unfamiliar with these birds could think this is an example of a symbiotic relationship like the one between
bee-eaters and bustards in Ethiopia, it is in fact rare and exceptional. Phalaropes usually
attract their prey by spinning. Perhaps there was a particularly tasty fly about to bite the turnstone. The phalarope, which (given the time of year) was stopping here on its spring migration to the Arctic, could have been both hungry after a long flight and too tired to do that spinning dance for its food. It wouldn't have cared that the fly it saw was only sitting there because it was busy biting a bird. It is impossible to tell from this photo what exactly is going on, but since the caption says the phalarope is apparently picking insects off, it can be assumed that it isn't simply chasing or harassing the turnstone, which would be much more likely. At any rate, what the phalarope is most decidedly NOT doing is picking bugs off out of empathy for the turnstone.
I'd say the turnstone must be uncomfortable about feeling an unexpected beak on its back.
-Elijah
P. S. There could be another reason that the phalarope is not doing phalaropey things. Unlike most birds, female phalaropes are larger and more dominant and territorial than males. They leave the males to deal with the eggs and chicks. Maybe this male phalarope was simply too nervous to think straight.
