Stats

Lifespan: 10-16 yrs
Size: Large
Diet: Carnivore
Activity: Diurnal
Social: Flock
Biome: Coastal wetland
Range: North America
Movement: Flight
Breeding: Egg-laying
Defense: Camouflage
Status: Common

About

A large, stocky sandpiper of North American shorelines, drab gray-brown at rest but startlingly transformed in flight, when bold black-and-white wing stripes flash into view. Willets are famously vocal on their breeding grounds, repeating a piercing "pill-will-willet" call that gives the species its name.

Life cycle

1.
egg
A clutch of eggs is incubated in the nest, kept warm by a brooding parent until the chicks pip free.
2.
hatchling
A naked or downy hatchling is fed in the nest by its parents.
3.
juvenile
A feathered juvenile fledges from the nest and learns to fly and forage.
4.
adult
Fully grown with adult plumage.

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Taxonomy

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Scolopacidae
Genus: Tringa
Species: Tringa semipalmata