Recurvirostra avosetta
An elegant black-and-white wader with an upturned bill, and the RSPB's own emblem.
Size: 42-46 cm | Habitat: Sea, Marsh, Estuary & Shoreline Birds | Season: All year
Strikingly patterned in black and white with long blue-grey legs, the avocet is instantly recognisable by its slender, upward-curving bill. Once extinct as a UK breeding bird, its return is one of British conservation's great success stories.
Bold black-and-white plumage · long, thin, upward-curving black bill · long blue-grey legs · elegant, high-stepping walk
Avocets feed by sweeping their upturned bill from side to side through shallow water and soft mud, sifting out small invertebrates, and nest in noisy colonies on bare or sparsely vegetated ground near shallow lagoons.
The avocet became extinct as a UK breeding bird in the 1840s, but returned to nest again in 1947 — its recovery was so significant that it became the emblem of the RSPB.
The Avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta) is a strikingly patterned black-and-white wader with long blue-grey legs and a slender, unmistakable upward-curving bill — so distinctive that it became the emblem of the RSPB.
Avocets feed by sweeping their upturned bill from side to side through shallow water and soft mud, sifting out small invertebrates, and nest in noisy colonies on bare or sparsely vegetated ground near shallow coastal lagoons.
The avocet became extinct as a UK breeding bird in the 1840s, but returned to nest again in 1947 at sites including Suffolk's Minsmere — a recovery so significant it symbolises the entire modern bird protection movement in Britain, with numbers at Poole Harbour alone rising from 25 to almost 2,000 birds in just 30 years.
Amber-listed under BoCC5 due to a still-localised breeding distribution in Britain and Europe, despite the avocet's celebrated recovery from local extinction.