NigelJE
Willet (Tringa semipalmata)
Best viewed large.
I spent the last week in Ixtapa, Mexico. My birding guide was William Mertz. This pair was found at Troncones.
The willet is in the foreground and the whimbrel, out of focus behind. The willet is rare in BC and the whimbrel is not common so it is a delight to find them together.
It breeds in Southern Alberta and Saskatchewan, down the Rockies to Northern Nevada and winters on the Coast North to the 40th parallel.
The willet (Tringa semipalmata), formerly in the monotypic genus Catoptrophorus as Catoptrophorus semipalmatus, is a large shorebird in the Scolopacidae family. It is a relatively large and robust sandpiper, and is the largest of the species called "shanks" in the genus Tringa.
The willet is still common in some parts of its range despite an apparent decline since the 1960s and it is considered to be a species which is at risk of becoming threatened or endangered without conservation action. The western subspecies is threatened by the conversion of native grasslands and drainage of wetlands for agriculture while the wintering habitat has been degraded locally in California by coastal development. Willets are also vulnerable to being killed by colliding with power lines laid through their wetland breeding areas. The passage of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in 1918 protected the willet from intensive exploitation by hunters for food and allowed its numbers to rebound to present levels. There are a total of 250,000 willets in North America, of which 150,000 were counted from the western flyway, and 90,000 in the eastern. Since the Western willet winters in the east then that means that there are probably much less than 90,000 Eastern willets.
Wikipedia, Birds of North America (Cornell Lab).
Willet (Tringa semipalmata)
Best viewed large.
I spent the last week in Ixtapa, Mexico. My birding guide was William Mertz. This pair was found at Troncones.
The willet is in the foreground and the whimbrel, out of focus behind. The willet is rare in BC and the whimbrel is not common so it is a delight to find them together.
It breeds in Southern Alberta and Saskatchewan, down the Rockies to Northern Nevada and winters on the Coast North to the 40th parallel.
The willet (Tringa semipalmata), formerly in the monotypic genus Catoptrophorus as Catoptrophorus semipalmatus, is a large shorebird in the Scolopacidae family. It is a relatively large and robust sandpiper, and is the largest of the species called "shanks" in the genus Tringa.
The willet is still common in some parts of its range despite an apparent decline since the 1960s and it is considered to be a species which is at risk of becoming threatened or endangered without conservation action. The western subspecies is threatened by the conversion of native grasslands and drainage of wetlands for agriculture while the wintering habitat has been degraded locally in California by coastal development. Willets are also vulnerable to being killed by colliding with power lines laid through their wetland breeding areas. The passage of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in 1918 protected the willet from intensive exploitation by hunters for food and allowed its numbers to rebound to present levels. There are a total of 250,000 willets in North America, of which 150,000 were counted from the western flyway, and 90,000 in the eastern. Since the Western willet winters in the east then that means that there are probably much less than 90,000 Eastern willets.
Wikipedia, Birds of North America (Cornell Lab).