American Avocet

Description: 16-20" A large, long-legged shorebird with slender, upturned bill, upperparts and wings patterned black and white, underparts white, head and neck rust-colored during breeding season	Habitat: Shallow saline lakes, sloughs, wet meadows, wetlands, marshes, saltwater or brackish ponds, lakeshores. Often seen feeding in large flocks, sometimes in a long line. Sweeps bill from side to side. A graceful, unmistakable bird.
Nesting: 4 olive-buff eggs spotted with black and brown, in a shallow impression lined with grasses, on a beach, often nests in loose colonies	Range: breeds from NW US to Minnesota, south to Texas, winters north to California, gulf coast, and Florida
Voice: a loud and repeated wheep	Diet: Mostly crustaceans, insects; aquatic vegetation, seeds. About 2/3 animal. Usually forages by sweeping bill back and forth beneath water's surface, finding food by feel.

Notes: almost hunted to extinction before protection by law, mobs predators around nest, food stirred up by Avocets taken by Wison's Phalaropes following behind

When present in Oklahoma: in summer fairly abundant in northeast part of state, seen migrating in winter sparsely anywhere in state