American Avocet

About the American Avocet

A tall, elegant shorebird that seems almost too graceful for the mudflats it works, the American Avocet has a long, thin, upturned bill and long blue-gray legs, with bold black-and-white wings and back. In breeding season its head and neck flush a lovely rusty-orange; in winter they fade to soft gray.

Avocets feed with a distinctive sweeping motion, swinging that recurved bill side to side through shallow water to snap up aquatic insects and small crustaceans, and they gather in elegant, coordinated flocks.

In Texas the American Avocet is a common bird of migration and winter, and a local breeder, favoring shallow wetlands, mudflats, salt ponds, and coastal flats across the state, most abundant along the coast and in the west.

A note from behind the lens: get low at the edge of a shallow flat where a flock is feeding and let the birds work toward you. Soft, low light suits the clean black-and-white and that rusty breeding head, and a reflection in still water doubles the elegance.