Shore birds of the Chaplin Lake

American Avocet

One of North America's most colourful and distinctive shorebirds, the American Avocet has a rusty coloured head and neck and black and white plumage. Its legs are long and blue-grey in colour and its bill is noticeably upturned.

The American Avocet arrives at Chaplin in mid-April, nests in late May and June and can be seen all summer. Four olive coloured eggs with dark markings are laid in simple nest depressions which are located at the edge of wetlands, on alkali flats or on an island. This bird feeds by sweeping its long, black, bill back and forth in the mud or water.

The Avocet winters in California and along the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Coast. It breeds in eastern Washington, southern Idaho, across the southern portion of the prairie provinces and south to California, Nevada, Colorado and Texas.

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