American Avocet Bookmark

Description

Avocets are stikingly handsome long-legged wading birds with a long slender upcurled bill.  They are perhaps the most graceful of all the shorebirds.  They livi in and around saline marshes.  Their former range included much of North America.

Avocets often feed in flocks , from 12-300, walking slowly shoulder to shoulder, at each step they thrust their bill underwater sweeping it rapidly from side to side.

Habitat destruction is its primary threat, agriculture has eliminated much of its range, especially in the West.