These birds migrate throughout most of Texas on their way north in the spring to breeding grounds throughout the northern plains and into central Canada. They also breed in parts of the Pacific Northwest. I am lucky enough to live in West Texas where these fellows linger long enough to breed when we have playas with water in them.

The last picture shows an avocet standing on one leg while he takes a break from hunting the water bugs and other invertebrates he feeds upon. These long legged wading birds prefer shallow, freshwater or salt water wetlands wherever they can find them in their range. At the end of summer, they fly south to Mexico to spend the winter.

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The Black-necked Stilt, Himantopus mexicanus, in family Recurvirostridae is a strikingly marked shore bird that is found as a migrant in west Texas as they move to summer breeding grounds in the Western United States. In this picture it is the black and white bird with red legs. The other three birds are White-face Ibises who are sharing the playa.

In the second picture, our subject is hunting insects in a puddle that remains in the drying playa. Take note of the white “eyebrows”. Their long red legs, long bill, black feathers above and white below make these birds easy to tell from all others.

No other bird has longer legs in proportion to their size except the flamingos. In this picture, you can see the long but sharply narrow bills they have for catching the insects, other arthropods, and fish upon which they feed.

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