Willet (Catoptrophorus semipalmatus)

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A Field Guide to Eastern Birds. by Roger Tory Peterson.

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Summer Plumage

Color Photograph: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Summer Plumage

Color Photographs: © by and courtesy of John Cassady

Willet (Catoptrophorus semipalmatus)

Identification: Length from tip of bill to tip of tail 15 inches.

Summer Plumage: A wading bird with long, grayish legs and a long, heavy, black, straight bill. Head, back, and wings gray, mottled with white. Head gray, with a vague white line over the eye. Bill striaght, dark, heavy. Underside white with the breast and sides heavily spotted with dark gray. Wing with a conspicuous white band and dark wrist, but typically seen only in flying birds. Legs gray. Tail white with a thin, gray rear margin.

Winter Plumage: Similar to the breeding bird, but back a lighter, more washed out gray, without distinct white spotting.

Similar Species:  The gray legs will easily distinguish the Willet from the Greater Yellowlegs and the Lesser Yellowlegs. The Stilt Sandpiper (8.5 inches in length) is only about one-half the size of the Willet and the tip of its bill is curved downward.

Breeding Range (see map below): The Willet is resident all year along the eastern coast from Nova Scotia in the north, southward to Florida, and westward to southeastern Texas. The species also breeds in the interior from the southern Prairie Provinces southward to Nebraska and westward to Utah.

Overwintering Range:  Outside of its resident range, this species overwinters along the Pacific Coast from southern California northward to Oregon.

Habitat: The Willet is found on coastal beaches and freshwater and salt marshes. Breeding populations in the interior are found in marshes, wet prairie, and along lake shores.

Food:  Marine invertebrates along the shore, and aquatic invertebrates, particularly insects, in the interior.

Behavior: The Willet is a wading bird. The species lives in pairs or small groups. The voice is a loud pill-will-willet.

Reproduction:  The clutch consists of 4 brown-spotted green-tan eggs. The eggs are laid in shallow depression lined with plants or shell fragments. The nest is placed in a clump or grass or on open ground.