Wader

The waders like quietly situated meadows, marshes, moors, and tundra regions. They feed on mosquitos, larvae, beetles, ants, and other insects.

characteristics:

Marshlands and moors are ideal habitats
Ruffs breed in the short nordic summer, in regions which reach from eastern Europe to eastern Siberia. For the little chicks to thrive, the ruffs need a nesting area of up to five hectares. The waders, which are about 30 cm tall (females are smaller), like quietly situated meadows, marshes, moors, and tundra regions. They feed on mosquitos, larvae, beetles, ants, and other insects.

The ruff, a wader with a wig
The ruff is a snipe bird which wears a resting dress and a mating dress. Males and females wear the same resting dress. On the way from Africa to its nordic breeding region, the males already get a splendid mating feather dress. They get a big, loud ruff and long "ear tufts" or "wigs" in assorted colours. The legs and bills also change colours. On the female ruffs, the feathers also change. They get black spots, which add a lively pattern to their brown top side.

The placecocks get up early
Males and females move separately to their breeding region. In mid-April the female ruffs also arrive from their winter quarters. The males already expect them ardently and start their group courtship display immediately. Therefore they set up special mating places, then fight for the females' favour for all they are worth. In May the placecocks have really become randy by fighting. They start waiting for their opponents in the darkness at 2 a.m. Then, when the females arrive on the scene after their beauty sleep, the show fights flare up again.

On stilts through the mud
Pied avocets are waders with short hind toes and webs between the three front toes. That is practical because they hardly sink in while wading in the mud. All species of pied avocets have got nice, loud feathers with a black-white or black-brown design. With their oversized legs, they wade through the shallow water as if on stilts and carry off invertebrate worms, insects, and very small fishes with their sharp bills.

Rearing isn't so easy.
Whether all young animals can be reared or not depends mainly on the living conditions of the pied avocet. If the nesting and feeding grounds are bad, the success of breeding varies immensely. From the mid-19th century until 1920, there were continually declining numbers of pied avocets. Since that time, their numbers have increased again. This corresponds with the fact that the protection of birds has become more and more popular, and reserves have been set up in which waders can raise their chicks nearly undisturbed.

Pied avocets grow up very fast
A pied avocet feels at home everywhere in the world. It breeds in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Ideal breeding conditions are found by these birds on the coasts of the North and Baltic Sea, on the recently silt-up shoreline of the mud flats and on the salty meadows. When mating partners have found each other in April, they don't spend a lot of time building nests, for the eggs are simply put into a hollow. However, they don't do that if they breed in the shallow water of the shore. Then both birds eagerly build a nest-hill together out of stones, grass, and other materials. Male and female then take turns in incubating the eggs, until the chicks hatch out after about 25 days. Just a short time later, these chicks already run around in their down dress and explore the world curiously. Within 40 days, the precocial birds are already independent and fly a race.