Prairie Willet portrait on Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah

Prairie Willet Images, Facts and Information:

Tringa inornata

  • Prairie Willets are large shorebirds with long legs, long, straight, heavy bills, grayish-brown bodies, and bluish-gray legs. Prairie Willets have distinctive black and white stripes on their wings that are especially noticeable in flight. Males and females look alike.
  • Prairie Willets are long distance migrators. Prairie Willets breed in the interior of North America, from central Canada south into the western and central U.S., including the Great Plains. They migrate to coastal areas for winter, including the Gulf of Mexico and Pacific coasts of the U.S. and Mexico.
  • Prairie Willets thrive in many habitats including prairies, freshwater marshes, grasslands near shallow water, and the edges of lakes and ponds. During migration and winter, they can be found along beaches, mudflats, bays, tidal flats, estuaries, and coastal marshes.
  • Prairie Willets eat aquatic insects, beetles, spiders, worms, snails, small fish, small crabs, clams, and other invertebrates.
  • Prairie Willets lay 4 eggs which hatch in 22 to 29 days. Both parents incubate the eggs and care for the young. Prairie Willets generally have one brood per breeding season.
  • A group of willets can be called a “fling”, “contradiction” or “whisper” of Willets.
  • The oldest known willet in North America was at least 10 years and 3 months old.

I hope you enjoy viewing my Prairie Willet photos.

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