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

Birds

Lesser Yellowlegs

The Lesser Yellowlegs is common across most of its range, but is seen rather less in the far west. It is found in the same sort of places as the Greater Yellowlegs, but its summer range does not extend as far to the east and its winter range is smaller. It breeds in northern swamps, the taiga and damp boreal forests, laying up to 4 buffy eggs splotched with brown in a shallow depression on bare ground lined with plant material – quite often far from water. The eggs are incubated by the female only for around 3 weeks; the young are ready to leave the nest soon after hatching and are fully independent in around 21 days. The adult is quite a tall, slender bird, with a long neck, a straight bill and long, bright yellow legs. Its plumage is gray-brown overall, with black and white mottling above, white below and white rump and a barred tail. In breeding plumage, its throat and breast are heavily streaked, its back is darker and more heavily marked and its flanks have short, find black bars. The Lesser Yellowlegs is often found in small flocks and bobs its head and body when alarmed. It wades in shallow water, picking at the surface to snap up small invertebrates and aquatic insects and their larvae.