How to Identify aWillet

Tringa semipalmata · 13–16.1 in (33–41 cm)

Male vs. female

Gray-brown and nondescript when standing, with gray legs and a heavy straight bill; striking black-and-white wings in flight. Sexes look alike.

Identical to the male in the field.

Male photo: ADJ82 / Wikimedia, CC BY 3.0 · Second photo: Dick Daniels (http://carolinabirds.org/) / Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0

Quick ID

A plain gray shorebird that looks drab until it flies and flashes a bold black-and-white wing stripe.

Greater Yellowlegs — Has long bright yellow legs and no wing stripe.

Marbled Godwit — Warmer cinnamon with a long slightly upturned two-toned bill.

A loud, ringing, insistent "pill-will-willet", which is where the name comes from.

Looks like the plainest bird on the beach until it opens its wings, and the pattern is so bold it can be identified at half a mile.

Beaches, mudflats and salt marshes; prairie wetlands in the interior West in summer.

Depending on where in North America you are, it is a summer visitor that arrives to breed and a winter visitor.

Crabs, marine worms, molluscs and insects.

The eastern and western populations differ enough in size, voice and habitat that they may eventually be split into two species.

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