{"id":51896,"date":"2018-04-30T06:46:34","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T12:46:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=51896"},"modified":"2025-01-29T09:16:24","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T15:16:24","slug":"foraging-american-avocets-in-breeding-plumage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/04\/30\/foraging-american-avocets-in-breeding-plumage\/","title":{"rendered":"Foraging American Avocets in Breeding Plumage"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ForagingForaging male American Avocet at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/4000, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Eight days ago it was sunny and bright and I was out having fun photographing a pair of foraging American Avocets in breeding plumage at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge<\/span><\/a> in northern Utah. I think American Avocets are among the most elegant and graceful looking shorebirds in North America and I always enjoy myself when I see and photograph them, especially when they are in breeding plumage which is more colorful than their nonbreeding plumage.<\/p>\n

Having a cooperative pair of American Avocets foraging in front of me is a always a thrill.<\/p>\n

\"ForagingForaging American Avocet in Breeding plumage – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/4000, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

This pair of American Avocets seemed only to be interested in looking for prey and ignored the “mobile blind” while they moved through the shallow water of an ephemeral pond on the south side of the auto tour route of the refuge.<\/p>\n

\"AmericanAmerican Avocet male striding through shallow water – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/5000, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I had hoped to see some courtship behavior but that wasn’t to be, these shorebirds were hungry. We are lucky to have thousands upon thousands of these long-legged avocets breed at Bear River MBR and before too long there will be chicks foraging with the adults. I haven’t noticed any avocets on nests yet but I’m sure it won’t be long before they are incubating if they aren’t already. I’ve learned that you have to go slow to see them on their nests because even in breeding plumage they can be hard to see with grasses, rushes and other vegetation near their nests. If you don’t go slow you might miss seeing them.<\/p>\n

\"AmericanAmerican Avocet female defecating – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/4000, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

It wasn’t until I got home and was going through my avocet images that I saw that I had captured this female avocet defecating, that little white strand to the left of her legs is poop in mid air. I get a laugh out of catching birds pooping, perhaps I am a little odd.<\/p>\n

\"MaleMale American Avocet at the edge of a pond – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/3200, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I also chuckle when I see muddy feet on the birds at the refuge, don’t ask me why because I don’t know why it causes me to laugh but it might have something to do with being a free spirited child who loved the outdoors and being barefoot as often as possible which meant sometimes warm mud squished between my toes. The avocet here looks quite elegant until you see that raised muddy foot. It doesn’t take much to amuse me at times.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my American Avocet photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n

It is raining and chilly here this morning so I won’t be going out into the field today and believe it or not there is a winter weather advisory here for the Uinta and Wasatch mountains until 4 pm today,\u00a0 two days ago it was 87\u00b0F here in the valley, we do have crazy weather here at times. Thankfully the birds in the valleys won’t have to deal with snow.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 4 PM MDT THIS<\/em>
\nAFTERNOON…<\/em><\/p>\n

* WHAT…Additional snow accumulations of 3 to 5 inches with<\/em>
\nlocally higher amounts possible.<\/em><\/p>\n

* WHERE…The Wasatch and western Uinta Mountains.<\/em><\/p>\n

* WHEN…Until 4 PM MDT this afternoon.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eight days ago it was sunny and bright and I was out having fun photographing a pair of foraging American Avocets in breeding plumage at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in northern Utah. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":139063,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[451,124,27,1148,26],"tags":[4051,1634,5828,5350,4053,5135,4070,4136,4062,2139,4375,4177,6474,3975,274,6473],"class_list":["post-51896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-avocets","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-utah","tag-adults","tag-american-avocet","tag-avocet","tag-avocets","tag-breeding-plumage","tag-defecating","tag-female","tag-foraging","tag-male","tag-pair","tag-poop","tag-recurvirostra-americana","tag-shallow-pond","tag-shorebird","tag-shorebirds-2","tag-striding"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/american-avocet-foraging-mia-mcpherson-2979.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-dv2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":40743,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/08\/01\/nonbreeding-american-avocet-foraging-at-bear-river-mbr\/","url_meta":{"origin":51896,"position":0},"title":"Nonbreeding American Avocet foraging at Bear River MBR","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The American Avocets look a bit different now than they did earlier in the year because they are now in their paler, less colorful nonbreeding plumage.","rel":"","context":"In "American Avocets"","block_context":{"text":"American Avocets","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/shorebirds\/american-avocets\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Nonbreeding American Avocet foraging, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/american-avocet-nonbreeding-mia-mcpherson-3660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/american-avocet-nonbreeding-mia-mcpherson-3660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/american-avocet-nonbreeding-mia-mcpherson-3660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/american-avocet-nonbreeding-mia-mcpherson-3660.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4649,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/03\/18\/american-avocets-at-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/","url_meta":{"origin":51896,"position":1},"title":"American Avocets at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 18, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"American Avocets are birds that I look forward to seeing in spring. I have already seen some from a distance this year.","rel":"","context":"In "American Avocets"","block_context":{"text":"American Avocets","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/shorebirds\/american-avocets\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"American Avocet foraging in a shallow pond, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/american-avocet-mia-mcpherson-5223.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/american-avocet-mia-mcpherson-5223.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/american-avocet-mia-mcpherson-5223.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/american-avocet-adult-breeding-mia-mcpherson-5233.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/american-avocet-adult-breeding-mia-mcpherson-5233.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/american-avocet-adult-breeding-mia-mcpherson-5233.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/american-avocet-adult-breeding-mia-mcpherson-5233.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":58971,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/07\/13\/american-avocet-and-black-necked-stilt-chicks-at-bear-river-mbr\/","url_meta":{"origin":51896,"position":3},"title":"American Avocet and Black-necked Stilt Chicks at Bear River MBR","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 13, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I spent part of my morning yesterday photographing American Avocet and Black-necked Stilt chicks from the auto tour route at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and it was a blast watching these young shorebirds.","rel":"","context":"In "American Avocets"","block_context":{"text":"American Avocets","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/shorebirds\/american-avocets\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Black-necked Stilt chick wing lift, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/black-necked-stilt-chick-wing-lift-mia-mcpherson-8463.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/black-necked-stilt-chick-wing-lift-mia-mcpherson-8463.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":41187,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/08\/20\/post-breeding-season-aggressive-behavior-in-american-avocets-plus-a-bonus-great-horned-owl\/","url_meta":{"origin":51896,"position":5},"title":"Post-breeding Season Aggressive Behavior in American Avocets Plus a Bonus Great Horned Owl","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 20, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I am unable to find information on line about why this male American Avocet attacked the female so aggressively but I can say that it was fascinating to see and photograph it.","rel":"","context":"In "American Avocets"","block_context":{"text":"American Avocets","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/shorebirds\/american-avocets\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male American Avocet being aggressive with the female, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, 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