Willet

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Identification

A large, sturdy shorebird with a long, straight, fairly thick bill, long legs, and gray-brown plumage that can look surprisingly plain when standing. The unmistakable field mark appears in flight: broad black-and-white wing stripes contrasting sharply with the otherwise subdued body. Western Willets tend to be larger, longer-legged, and longer-billed than Eastern Willets.

Similar Species

Greater Yellowlegs can overlap in size and habitat but has bright yellow legs, a somewhat upturned bill, and lacks the Willet’s bold black-and-white wing pattern. Greater Yellowlegs is also usually more active and animated while feeding. In nonbreeding plumage, a standing Willet can also invite comparison with godwits, but its straighter bill and different proportions are useful clues.

Natural History

Willets forage by walking through shallow water, mudflats, shorelines, and wet grasslands, picking prey from the surface or probing into soft substrate. Their diet includes aquatic insects, crustaceans, mollusks, worms, and other small animals. During the breeding season they become conspicuous and vocal, defending territories and nesting on the ground in grasses or marsh vegetation.

Habitat & Distribution

Two broadly separated breeding populations occupy different landscapes. Western Willets breed mainly in interior prairies and grasslands near freshwater wetlands across western North America, while Eastern Willets breed primarily in Atlantic and Gulf coastal marshes. After breeding, both populations migrate to coastal and wetland habitats from the southern United States through Central America, the Caribbean, and northern and western South America.

Conservation

IUCN Red List: Least Concern (LC) • Population trend: Decreasing

Although globally categorized as Least Concern, Willets depend on wetland, prairie, and coastal habitats that continue to be altered or lost. Coastal development, disturbance, sea-level rise, marsh degradation, and conversion of prairie wetlands and surrounding grasslands can affect breeding and nonbreeding habitat. The western population is especially relevant to Saskatchewan because it breeds in prairie wetland landscapes.

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