Lesser Yellowlegs

About the Lesser Yellowlegs

The Lesser Yellowlegs is a slim, graceful shorebird with long yellow legs, a speckled gray-brown back, and a straight, needle-thin bill. It looks like a smaller copy of the Greater Yellowlegs, and telling them apart is a rite of passage for birders. The Lesser has a daintier build and a shorter bill, about the same length as its head, and it usually gives a soft one- or two-note "tu" or "tu-tu" call instead of the Greater's ringing series of three or more.

Lesser Yellowlegs feed by walking briskly through shallow water and picking insects and tiny crustaceans from the surface, often in loose flocks. They breed in the open boreal forest of Alaska and Canada, where adults perch on the tops of spruces and scold intruders loudly, and they migrate as far as southern South America.

In Texas the species is one of the most common migrant shorebirds, passing through in spring and again from July into fall, when flooded fields, sewage ponds, and lake edges can hold good numbers. Surveys show it has declined sharply over recent decades, and hunting pressure on its wintering grounds is thought to be one factor.

These photos come from Hornsby Bend in Travis County, on May 20, 2023 and March 9, 2025.