This beautiful Willet was out walking the surf looking for food. He had no time for me. They move fast and usually there will be several plovets following. This photo was taken in Fort Morgan, AL. The willet is a large shorebird. It is a relatively large and robust sandpiper and is the largest of the species called "shanks" in the genus Tringa. It breeds in North America and the West Indies and winters in southern North America, Central America, the West Indies and South America.

The eastern willet breeds in coastal salt marshes while the western willet breeds in freshwater prairie marshes, sloughs, potholes and other inland wetlands. In winter both subspecies are coastal birds being found on both rocky and sandy coasts as well as on mudflats and in coastal marshes.

Willets are flexible in their feeding habits and hunt by walking steadily and pecking prey from the substrate, although they also probe into the mud or silt with their sensitive bill and may actively stalk larger prey in shallow water. A favored prey on the coasts is small fiddler crabs as well as mole crabs, worms, clams and other invertebrates.[20] They have also been known to occasionally eat plant material. Willets also actively hunt more mobile prey such as fish and aquatic insects in the water and will wade up to their bellies to pursue such prey. Prey recorded in western willets during breeding include water scavenger beetles (Hydrophilidae), diving beetles (Dytiscidae), snout beetles (Curculionidae), spiders (Araneae) and fish (Cypriniformes).[21] In winter, western willets have been recorded eating shore crabs (Hemigrapsus), brachyuran crabs (Uca princeps, Leptuca crenulata), crabs (Pachygrapsus), clams (Macoma, Gemma gemma), nereid worms (Neanthes), mussels (Mytilus), whelks (Nassariidae) and others.[21] Eastern willets eat primarily marine coastal prey, including fiddler crabs (Minuca minax, Minuca pugnax, Leptuca pugilator), other crabs (Armases cinereum, Sesarma reticulatum), mole crabs (Emerita talpoida), amphipods (Corophium volutator) and other marine invertebrates.[21] The sensitive bill means that willets can hunt at night as well as during the day.[18][22][17] They often use rocks, trees or fence posts to perch on.

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