Backyard Bird Identification killdeer, avocet, stilt

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	Black-necked Stilt - Adults are 33-36 cm long. They have long pink legs, a long thin black bill and are mainly white with a dark cap and a dark back. The taxonomy of this bird is still somewhat contentious: some sources believe that there are as many as five distinct species; others consider some or all of these to be subspecies. The American variant, the Black-necked Stilt, has a dark head as well with a white spot over the eye. It is recorded as Himantopus mexicanus in the Sibley-Monroe checklist. The breeding habitat is marshes, shallow lakes and ponds. Black-winged Stilts are found in southern and southeastern Europe, central Asia, northern Africa, Australia, Central and South America, Hawaii, the Philippines, south central Canada and the western and southeastern United States. They may stray well outside these areas. The nest site is a bare spot on the ground near water. These birds often nest in small groups, sometimes with avocets. They are migratory and move to the ocean coasts in winter. These birds pick up their food from sand or water. They mainly eat insects and crustaceans. Photo © Calamospiza

	American Avocet - Adults have long legs, a rust head and neck, a long up-turned bill and a white lower body with a distinctive black and white pattern on the wing and back. Their breeding habitat is marshes, prairie ponds, and shallow lakes in the mid-west and on the Pacific coast of North America. They nest on open ground, often in small groups, sometimes with other waders. They are migratory and most winter on the southern Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Mexico and the United States. These birds forage in shallow water or on mud flats, often sweeping their bills from side to side in water. They mainly eat crustaceans and insects. Photo © Brandon Holden Photo © Sean Cronin

	Killdeer - noisy plover with black and white breast stripes. Reddish back. Found in fields, stony dry areas as well as around water. The Killdeer, Charadrius vociferus, is a medium-sized plover. Adults have a brown back and wings, a white belly, and a white breast with two black bands. The rump is tawny orange. The face and cap are brown with a white forehead. They have an orange-red eyering. Their breeding habitat is open fields or lawns, often quite far from water, across most of Canada, the United States, and Mexico, with isolated populations in Costa Rica and Peru. They nest on the ground in an open area with a clear line of sight, or on a gravel roof. They are migratory in northern areas and winter as far south as northern South America. They are rare vagrants to western Europe, usually late in the year. These birds forage for food in fields, mudflats, and shores, usually by sight. They mainly eat insects. Their name comes from their call, frequently heard. These birds will frequently use the "broken wing act" to distract predators from their nests. Their ability to exploit a wide range of agricultural and semi-urban habitat has helped keep them common and widespread in their range. Photo © Michael McKee Photo © William Bowell

	Willet - Adults have grey legs and a long, straight, dark and stout bill. The body is dark grey on top and light underneath. The tail is white with a dark band at the end. The wings have a distinctive black and white pattern. Their breeding habitat is salt marshes in eastern North America from Nova Scotia to the Gulf of Mexico and fresh water prairie marshes in western North America from southern Canada to the northern United States. They nest on the ground, usually in well-hidden locations in short grass, often in colonies. Willets migrate to the Atlantic coast from North Carolina to northern South America in the west and to the Pacific coast from California to South America in the east. These birds forage on mudflats or in shallow water, probing or picking up food by sight. They mainly eat insects, crustaceans and marine worms, but also eat some plant material. The willets' population declined sharply due to hunting in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Their population has since increased, but they are still considered at risk, especially in light of continued habitat loss. Photo © Calamospiza Photo © Wes Serafin

	Dunlin - The Dunlin, Calidris alpina, is a small wader. It is a circumpolar breeder in Arctic or subarctic regions. Birds that breed in northern Europe and Asia are long-distance migrants, wintering south to Africa and southeast Asia. Birds that breed in Alaska and the Canadian Arctic migrate short distances to the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of North America. The Dunlin is highly gregarious in winter, sometimes forming large flocks on coastal mudflats or sandy beaches. Large numbers can often be seen swirling in synchronized flight on stop-overs during migration or on their winter habitat. This bird is one of the commonest and best-known waders throughout its breeding and wintering ranges, and it is the species with which other waders tend to be compared. At 17-21 cm length and a 32-36 cm wingspan, it is similar in size to a Starling, but stouter, with a thick bill. It shows a strong white wingbar in flight, and it moves along the coastal mudflat beaches it prefers with a characteristic "sewing machine" feeding action, methodically picking small food items. Insects form the main part of the Dunlin's diet on the nesting grounds; it eats mollusks, worms and crustaceans in coastal areas. The depicted bird is a spring adult in breeding plumage, with the distinctive black belly which no other similar-sized wader possesses. The winter Dunlin is basically grey above and white below. Juveniles are brown above with two whitish "V" shapes on the back. They usually have black marks on the flanks or belly. The legs and slightly decurved bill are black. There are a number of subspecies differing mainly in the extent of rufous coloration in the breeding plumage and the bill length. It should, however, be noted that bill length varies between sexes, the females having longer bills than the males. The nest is a shallow scrape on the ground lined with vegetation, into which two to six eggs are laid and incubated by the male and female parents. Both parents feed the young for a few days; after that, the young feed themselves and are able to fly in less than a month. The call is a typical sandpiper "peep", and the display song a harsh trill. Photo © Lee Davis

	Ruddy Turnstone - Turnstones are two bird species, the Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres), and the Black Turnstone (Arenaria melanocephala). Both birds are distinctive medium-sized waders. They are high Arctic breeders, and are migratory. These chunky powerful birds, have strong necks and bills well suited to their feeding technique. As the name implies, these species readily turn stones or seaweed looking for hidden invertebrates. They are strictly coastal, preferring stony beaches to sand, and are often found with Purple Sandpipers. Their appearance is striking in flight, with white patches on the back, wings and tail. The Ruddy Turnstone (or just Turnstone in Europe) has a circumpolar distribution, and is a very long distance migrant, wintering on coasts as far south as South Africa and Australia. It is thus a common sight on coasts almost everywhere in the world. In breeding plumage, this is a showy bird, with a black-and-white head, chestnut back, white underparts and red legs. The drabber winter plumage is basically brown above and white below. This is a generally tame bird and is an opportunist feeder. Unlike most waders, it will scavenge, and has a phenomenal list of recorded food items, including human corpses and coconut. The call is a staccato "tuck- tuck- tuck". The Black Turnstone has a similar structure to its widespread relative, but has black upperparts and chest, and white below. It has a much more restricted range than the Ruddy Turnstone, breeding in western Alaska, and wintering mainly on the Pacific coast of the USA. Photo © Robert Wincup Photo © AUDEVARD Aurélien

	Sanderling - like wound up clockwork toys running along the beach near the waves. This bird is similar in size to a Dunlin, but stouter, with a thick bill. It shows a strong white wingbar in flight, and runs along the sandy beaches it prefers with a characteristic "bicycling" action, stopping frequently to pick small food items. It eats small crabs and other small invertebrates. In spring, birds migrating north from South America consume large numbers of horseshoe crab eggs in the Delaware Bay area. The depicted bird is a spring recent arrival on the High Arctic breeding grounds, where it lays 3-4 eggs on a ground scrape. Later in the summer, the face and throat become brick-red. On the nesting grounds, these birds mainly eat insects and some plant material. The winter bird is very pale, almost white apart from a dark shoulder patch. This is the source of the specific name, alba, which is the Latin for "white". The juvenile bird is spangled black and white, and shows much more contrast than the adult. Sanderling behavior is distinctive, but visually, if the size is misjudged, a breeding plumage sanderling can be mistaken for some varieties of stint, or a winter plumage sanderling can be mistaken for a Dunlin or Red Knot. It can be told from other small wading birds, given good views, by its lack of a hind toe. Photos © Nigel Blake

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