Pied Avocet

Pied Avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta) is a striking black-and-white wader with very long blue-grey legs and a fine upturned bill. Body shape, bill structure, plumage pattern and voice provide the strongest field characters. Age, sex and season may alter its appearance, so identification should combine several features and careful direct field comparisons with similar species in the same habitat (Wikipedia, general species account).

It sweeps the bill side to side through shallow water for invertebrates and nests colonially on open wetland margins. Its movements and social behaviour vary through the year, with breeding birds generally more dispersed and non-breeding birds gathering where food is concentrated. The Korean vertebrate catalogue used for this guide records the species in South Korea (Wikipedia, general species account; Wildlife of Korea occurrence records).