Ashley and Crippen Photographers, Toronto|Corporate Headshots/Executive Headshots 

Birds

Dunlin

Large flocks of Dunlin can be seen on mud flats along both North American coasts from fall through the spring. When disturbed, hundreds of birds rise in a tightly packed swirling mass, flying in perfect formation. The Dunlin spends the summer on Artic tundra in the far north, where it breed and lays four buff greenish, brown spotted eggs in a small scrape in the ground lined with grass. These are incubated by both adults for around three weeks; the young leave the nest soon after hatching and are looked after by both parents. The adult is stocky with a short neck, a bill that is heavy at the base but slimmer and downcurved at the tip and is longer than the head, and dark legs and feet. In breeding plumage it is gray0brown on the head, neck and upper breast, with a rufous back, and whitish belly and flanks with black belly patch. Winter birds are an even dull brown-gray above and buff below, with darker streaks on breast and flanks. The Dunlin wades slowly through shallow water, probing with its bill to find mollusks, aquatic insects and small crustaceans.