Willet
Tringa semipalmata
While they appear plain gray when resting, willets reveal a startling, high-contrast black and white stripe pattern on their wings the moment they take flight.
- Scientific name
- Tringa semipalmata
- Taxonomy
- Animalia › Chordata › Aves › Charadriiformes › Scolopacidae › Tringa
- IUCN Red List status
- Least Concern
- Population trend
- decreasing
- Biome
- wetland
- Habitat
- Salt marshes, mudflats, sandy beaches, rocky coasts, and freshwater wet prairies.
- Diet
- Invertebrates, including fiddler crabs, marine worms, insects, mollusks, and occasionally small fish.
- Range
- North America, Central America, Caribbean, Northern South America
- Size
- Length: 33-41 cm (13-16 in), Wingspan: 70-80 cm (27-31 in)
- Lifespan
- 10-15 years
- Active
- diurnal
- Threats
- Coastal development, habitat loss, sea-level rise, and disturbance from recreational beach activities and off-leash pets.
- Safe to approach?
- Harmless. If you encounter a willet, maintain a safe distance of at least 50 feet, especially on beaches where they may be nesting or feeding. If they begin calling loudly or circling overhead, they are defensive of a nearby nest; slowly and carefully back away to avoid stepping on their highly camouflaged eggs.
The willet ( Tringa semipalmata ), formerly in the monotypic genus Catoptrophorus as Catoptrophorus semipalmatus , is a large shorebird in the family Scolopacidae. It is a relatively large and robust sandpiper, and is the largest of the species called "shanks" in the genus Tringa . Its closest relative is the lesser yellowlegs, a much smaller bird with a very different appearance apart from the fine, clear, and dense pattern of the neck, which both species show in breeding plumage....
Photo: Daniel Pineda Vera, CC-BY, via iNaturalist
Plain-text version: /species/dd9429fc-301b-4e2b-ba0f-fbaa21c82c72.md