American Avocet

Recurvirostra americana
Range Map

The American Avocet’s breeding habitat is marshes, beaches, prairie ponds, and shallow lakes. In North America these birds will breed in summer throughout the Rocky Mountain zone and adjacent prairies. We may find them from Texas and New Mexico north to southern Canada and the northern Great Basin. Over most of its range, this bird is migratory, but over much of California and central Mexico it is a resident. Winters will find these birds mostly in the southern USA and Mexico.

The early 20th Century saw many wetlands drained and unregulated hunting. During this time, we extirpated American Avocets in the eastern USA. Many of the remaining wetlands are still contaminated with chemicals such as selenium and methylmercury. These hazards continue to pose threats to chick survival. Yet despite these obstacles, the populations have stabilized in the past 60 years.

Modern science regards the American Avocet as monotypic (i.e. no subspecies).

I enjoy meeting American Avocets as I travel in the Western USA. I have special memories of encounters while in the company of biologists on their Elegant Tern nesting surveys. In southern California at the Saltworks in the South San Diego Bay National Wildlife Refuge many interesting birds nest. Avocets and their cousins, the Black-Necked Stilts, place their nests nearer the edges of the salt ponds than do the terns. Our mission was to count the tern’s nests and eggs. Avocets and stilts bravely endeavored to distract us with broken wing ploys and loud vocal protests, as we passed by their chosen nest sites.

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