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Breeding Range (Fig. 71). Common on the Missouri Coteau; fairly common on the Northeastern, Southern, and Northwestern Drift Plains, and in southwestern North Dakota (southern portion of Little Missouri Slope and extreme southwestern portion of Missouri Slope within Bowman and Slope Counties); uncommon and local over the remainder of the Little Missouri Slope and Missouri Slope, on the Coteau Slope, in the Agassiz Lake Plain Region, and in the Turtle Mountains.

Breeding Habitat. Wetlands inhabited by this species include swales along intermittent streams, and various types of ponds and lakes that contain expanses of shallow water that are interspersed with or adjacent to wet-meadow vegetation. The salinity of these wetlands ranges from fresh to strongly saline. During 1961-1969, the habitats occupied by 438 breeding pairs were recorded (H. A. Kantrud, RES). Of this total, about 49 percent occurred on semipermanent ponds and lakes including 33 percent on those that were brackish or subsaline and 16 percent on those that were fresh, slightly brackish, or moderately brackish. About 39 percent were on seasonal ponds and lakes; 6 percent on alkali ponds and lakes; and 6 percent on other wetland types including fen ponds, temporary ponds, riparian wetlands, and road ditches.

Nesting. Breeding season: Mid-May to late July; peak, late May to early July. Extreme egg dates (62 nests): May 26 [1967] in Divide County (RES) to July 8 [1895] in Towner County (Bishop egg collection catalog, Peabody Museum). Extreme dates of dependent young (14 broods): June 7 [1965] in Kidder County to July 17 [1968] in Divide County (RES). Early post-breeding flocks include one containing about 1000 birds at Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge on June 19, 1937 (S. H. Low), and another containing about 250 adult females at Cranberry Lake in Benson County on June 21, 1966 (RES).

Most nests are located in wet-meadow zones of ponds and lakes. Occasionally, nests are also situated in grassy swales of fens and in hummocky shallow-marsh zones of brackish and subsaline ponds and lakes.

Indicated clutch size (38 nests): 4 eggs each.

Figure 71. Breeding Range of Wilson's Phalarope.

Copulating pair of Wilson's Phalarope. Burleigh County, May 1973 (photo by Ed Bry).