Willet

Catoptrophorus semipalmatus Order: CHARADRIIFORMES Family: Sandpipers (Scolopacidae)
Willet Portrait
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General

Willet: Large sandpiper with mottled gray-brown upperparts, white rump and lightly streaked and barred white underparts. Broad white stripes on black wings are visible in flight. Tail is white with dark brown tip. Legs are blue-gray. Sexes are similar. Winter adult is plain gray-brown above and white below.

Range and Habitat

Willet: Breeds from central Canada to northeastern California and Nevada and along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts south from Nova Scotia. Spends winters along coasts from Oregon and the Carolinas southward. Preferred habitats include mud banks, tides, coasts and coastal lagoons.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"pill-will-willet", "kuk-kuk-kuk-kuk"

Interesting Facts

 Willets breeding in the interior of the West differ from the Atlantic Coastal form in ecology, morphology, and subtly in calls.

 It is the only North American sandpiper whose breeding range extends southward into the tropics.

 They are very territorial and will aggressively defend their nesting and feeding territory.

 A group of sandpipers has many collective nouns, including a "bind", "contradiction", "fling", "hill", and "time-step" of sandpipers.



Author

Gary Owen Dick

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Range Map for Willet

Related Birds

Black Turnstone
American Avocet
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Red Knot
Wandering Tattler
Gray-tailed Tattler
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Family Sandpiper (Scolopacidae)_blue
Species Catoptrophorus semipalmatus
Length13 - 16 Inches
Wingspan27.5 Inches

Willet

Willet: Large sandpiper with mottled gray-brown upperparts, white rump and lightly streaked and barred white underparts. Broad white stripes on black wings are visible in flight. Tail is white with dark brown tip. Legs are blue-gray. Flight is short and low, alternates rapid wing beats with glides.

● Song: "pill-will-willet", "kuk-kuk-kuk-kuk"

● Foraging & Feeding: Willet: Feeds on mollusks, crustaceans, insects, and small fish; forages by picking food from shallows and probing mud with tip of its bill.

● Breeding & nesting: Willet: Four to five brown marked, gray to pale olive eggs are laid in a nest lined with weeds or bits of shell built in a depression on open ground or in a grass clump. Incubation ranges from 22 to 29 days and is carried out by both parents.

● Similar species: Willet: Yellowlegs are smaller and slimmer, with more slender bills and yellow legs, and lack striking black-and-white wing pattern.

Flight Pattern

Short low flight with series of rapid wing beats.
Willet Body Illustration
● Range & Habitat: Willet: Breeds from central Canada to northeastern California and Nevada and along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts south from Nova Scotia. Spends winters along coasts from Oregon and the Carolinas southward. Preferred habitats include mud banks, tides, coasts and coastal lagoons.
BreedingMonogamous, Semicolonial
Population
MigrationMigratory
Weight7.6 Ounces