Avocet. Pied Avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta)
Pied Avocets are elegant birds. They have sharply contrasting black and white bodies and heads with a faint touch of sky blue beneath their wings and sky blue legs which are long and thin. Their distinctive beak is very long, slim and upturned. Males and females have similar plumage.
Pied Avocets often feed by scything their beaks along the water from side to side. They eat crustaceans and insects.
They breed in England in summer, but migrate to Africa in the winter, though some stay in the warmer south of England or southern Spain during winter. They lay eggs on the ground in shallow, untidy nests. Their chicks are a fluffy pale grey, dull black and sepia.
In the wild Avocets nest near Black-headed gulls because they chase the predators away, but have to be on the lookout for the possibility of their chicks being taken by these same gulls.
They are very protective of their chicks and can be seen spending a lot of time chasing the other birds away. Whether other birds step too close to the chicks or fly above them, the parent Avocet is ready to defend by charging at the other bird, flapping wings and calling.
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