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  In flight

Cranes & Waders

Pied Avocet

Recurvirostra avosetta

• uncommon
• 40 km/h
• Least Concern

The bird on the RSPB logo. Sweeps that upturned bill side to side like a metal detector.

Population

c. 280,000-470,000 individuals globally (2015 estimate); European population ~117,000-149,000 mature individuals (~58,400-74,300 breeding pairs)

Habitat

Shallow saline and brackish wetlands: coastal lagoons, salt pans/salt flats, estuaries, mudflats, river deltas, and inland alkaline/saline lakes; breeds on bare sand, mud, clay, or islets/dikes with sparse vegetation and shallow water nearby

Fun fact

The Pied Avocet's recolonisation of Minsmere, Suffolk, in 1947 — after being extirpated as a UK breeding species by around 1840 — made it a symbol of conservation success and led to its adoption as the logo of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).

Range

Turano-Mediterranean/Palearctic-Afrotropical species: widespread across Europe (southern Scandinavia to the Iberian Peninsula), the Mediterranean and Black Sea region, and temperate/Central Asia (Turkey to Mongolia, China, Kazakhstan, Middle East); non-breeding range extends across Africa (Mediterranean coast to Senegal, East and southern Africa) and the Middle East; northern populations are migratory (moving south Aug-Oct, north Mar-May), southern/western populations more sedentary/resident

Diet

Small aquatic invertebrates — annelid/oligochaete and polychaete worms, crustaceans, bivalves/mollusks, and insects (including chironomid/midge larvae) — swept up with a characteristic sideways sweeping motion of the upturned bill through shallow water and soft mud; occasionally small fish. (Note: "seeds" in the first-pass diet description was not corroborated by BirdLife DataZone or Wikipedia in this pass — flagged, not removed, as low-confidence.)

Size

0.44 m

Wingspan

0.72 m

Lifespan

20 years