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Stilts and avocets
Elegant, long-legged wading birds; stilts (rare in the UK) have especially long, slender legs with short toes and needle-like bills, while avocets have slender, upcurved bills adapted for a sideways sweep across the surface of wet mud or through shallow water to find food.
Essentially black and white birds, strikingly patterned, living on shallow lagoons and lakes, saltpans and similar areas, and, in winter, on muddy estuaries.
There are a few similar species elsewhere in the world.
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A distinctively-patterned black and white wader with a long up-curved beak. It is the emblem of the RSPB and symbolises the bird protection movement in the UK more than any other species. Its return... More... |
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