Willet

Description:

Willets are heavily built shorebirds with a strong straight bill. The plumage is gray with white underparts.

Habitat:

Spotted along the beach at Alabama Point - Gulf State park.

Notes:

Willets are flexible in their feeding habits and hunt by walking steadily and pecking prey from the substrate, although they also probe into the mud or silt with their sensitive bill and may actively stalk larger prey in shallow water. A favoured prey on the coasts are small fiddler crabs as well as mole crabs, worms, clams and other invertebrates, they have also been known to eat plant material. Willets also actively hunt more mobile prey such as fish and aquatic insects in the water and will wade up to their bellies to pursue such prey. The sensitive bill means that willets can hunt at night as well as during the day. (Wikipedia)