Q: What's got a long bill like a straw and backward-bending bandy legs?

A: The long-billed Curlew

The long legs of shorebirds are basically adaptations for wading in water and finding food where most birds cannot go. Although curlews are shorebirds, they breed quite far from water in prairie grassland and possibly in cultivated fields. Unusually, males share the job of incubating the eggs and they stay with the young longer than the females do.

If you are missing warm springtime outings because of the weather, learn about what to watch for once you're out there, in the meantime! You can find more about curlews here:

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/long-billed_curlew/lifehistory

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-billed_Curlew

Enjoy!

Andy Hurly

Lodgepole Environmental: Consulting and Photography

(Editor's note:
You will probably recognize its lovely call when you hear it in some of the videos below.
Here's an interesting science project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCs0lhF5Gmk
And here is a ton of curlew videos - some great quality, others are DIYs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNAuLaqxQ8Q&list=PLrtVlWWdpvqImwR0AUOBuklST07fVFUR2 )