All In

Wherever the Long-billed Curlew is found, the Marbled Godwit may be in the neighborhood also. The two birds are similar in size, color, and habit. They both have unusually long beaks, but the curlew’s curves down while the godwit’s slopes upward a bit. In the video, a curlew passes by, a foot or two from the godwit. A Willet also ambles along, feeding selectively. As the video shows, the godwit’s foraging method borrows a little from the Least Sandpiper, in that it sometimes makes shallow pecks, an inch or less deep, in rapid-fire fashion seemingly at random. The sensor cells in its beak are telling it what might be underneath. When it feels something of interest, it may go all in — the whole head and part of the neck underwater.

More: Wikipedia Audubon Cornell In Chavez Park

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