American Avocet

Recurvirostra americana

Long blue legs, upturned bill, sweeps shallow water in elegant side-to-side scoops. The wading-bird ballerina.

Population: ~460,000 mature individuals
Habitat: Shallow wetlands including marshes, prairie ponds, shallow lakes, and both freshwater and hypersaline environments; breeds on sparsely vegetated interior wetlands in arid regions, winters on coastal lagoons, salt ponds, and mudflats
Fun fact: The American Avocet forages by sweeping its distinctive upturned bill side to side through shallow water to feel out aquatic invertebrates, a technique called scything.
Range: Breeds across western and mid-western North America (interior wetlands from southern Canada/Alberta through the western U.S. to New Mexico); winters along the Pacific, Gulf, and Atlantic coasts from California and the southern U.S. south to Guatemala, with year-round populations in central California and parts of Mexico
Diet: Aquatic invertebrates such as brine shrimp, brine flies and larvae, other insects, and small crustaceans, caught by sweeping its upturned bill side to side through shallow water (also pecking, plunging, snatching, filtering, and scraping)
Size: 0.45 m
Wingspan: 0.72 m
Lifespan: 15 years

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