Wildlife Watching Wednesday: The Beautiful Lesser Yellowlegs
By: Tom Berg
One of the most beautiful long-distance migratory shore birds of North America is the Lesser Yellowlegs. These handsome wading birds spend the winter in South America and migrate north through the entire United States, from the east coast to the west coast, up into northern Canada and Alaska to breed.
As their name suggests, the Lesser Yellowlegs bird has bright yellow legs. These long, thin legs allow it to wade through water and mud with ease as it hunts for food along the shores of lakes, ponds, rivers, swamps and marshes. Their feathers are a mottled brownish gray color, with subtle streaking on their head, neck and breast. Their belly is white. They look almost identical to the larger Greater Yellowlegs, with size being the main difference between the two.
Lesser Yellowlegs eat a variety of foods that they find in the water and shallow mudflats. Dragonfly nymphs are a favorite, but they also eat adult dragonflies and damselflies, water beetles, worms, flies, leeches, snails and many other aquatic invertebrates. Their long bill helps them grab these slippery creatures as they move along under the water or in the mud.
Breeding takes place in the far north and northwest, in northern Canada and the interior of Alaska. Adults arrive on the breeding grounds as early as May in most years. The nests of Lesser Yellowlegs can be found right on the ground, near marshy ponds and wetlands. The nest itself is often made of moss, grass and twigs. There is only one brood per year, consisting of 3-5 young. The chicks hatch and leave the nest within a few hours.
The young birds grow very fast, and they fledge in less than three weeks after hatching. They will spend a few more weeks feeding and perfecting their flying skills, but by mid-July they will begin the long migration south with their parents. The rest of the summer is spent stopping at many places in the USA to rest and feed, before continuing south again to their wintering grounds.
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