Willet

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This article is about the bird species. For the town of New York refer to Willet, New York.

Willet

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

Binomial name

Tringa semipalmata

Subspecies

T. s. semipalmata Eastern Willet
T. s. inornata Western Willet

Synonyms

Catoptrophus semipalmatus
Totanus semipalmatus

The Willet, Tringa semipalmata (formerly in the monotypic genus Catoptrophorus, as Catoptrophorus semipalmatus^[1]), is a large shorebird in the sandpiper family. It is a well-sized and stout scolopacid, the largest of the shanks. Its closest relative is the Lesser Yellowlegs, a much smaller bird with a very different appearance apart from the fine, clear and dense pattern of the neck which both species show in breeding plumage.

Adults have gray legs and a long, straight, dark and stout bill. The body is dark gray above and light underneath. The tail is white with a dark band at the end. The distinctive black and white pattern of the wings is a common sight along many North American coastal beaches.

A willet in flight, showing the bold underwing pattern

Two subspecies (which may well be different species^{[citation needed]}) have very different breeding habitats and ranges. The Eastern Willet breeds in coastal saltmarshes from Nova Scotia to Mexico and the Caribbean. It winters on the Atlantic coast of South America. The Western Willet breeds in freshwater prairie marshes in western North America. It winters on both coasts, from the mid-Atlantic states south to at least Brazil on the Atlantic, and from Oregon south to Peru on the Pacific.

Willets nest on the ground, usually in well-hidden locations in short grass, often in colonies. These birds forage on mudflats or in shallow water, probing or picking up food by sight. They mainly eat insects, crustaceans and marine worms, but also eat some plant material.

The willet's population declined sharply due to hunting in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Their population has since increased, but they are still considered at risk, especially in light of continued habitat loss.

[edit] Footnotes

^ Pereira & Baker (2005), Banks et al. (2006)

[edit] References

Banks, Richard C.; Cicero, Carla; Dunn, Jon L.; Kratter, Andrew W.; Rasmussen, Pamela C.; Remsen, J. V. Jr.; Rising, James D. & Stotz, Douglas F. (2006): Forty-seventh Supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list of North American Birds. Auk 123(3): 926–936. DOI: 10.1642/0004-8038(2006)123[926:FSTTAO]2.0.CO;2 PDF fulltext

BirdLife International (2004). Catoptrophorus semipalmatus. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern

Pereira, Sérgio Luiz & Baker, Alan J. (2005): Multiple Gene Evidence for Parallel Evolution and Retention of Ancestral Morphological States in the Shanks (Charadriiformes: Scolopacidae). Condor 107(3): 514–526. DOI: 10.1650/0010-5422(2005)107[0514:MGEFPE]2.0.CO;2 HTML abstract