Long legs, long beaks...

Wading birds, almost by definition, are endowed with long legs for walking into deep water in search of food.

However, the different species have evolved by natural selection to avoid competing with each other for food by becoming specialised in their own "ecological niches". A result of this is a process of adaptive radiation in which a diverse and peculiar array of beak shapes and sizes have evolved to do different jobs for different species.

I took the pictures below on a recent visit to the Seewinkel National Park in Burgenland, Austria.

The White Stork has a powerful beak for stabbing and grabbing. Its diet may include almost anything that moves, including insects, fish, reptiles and amphibia

The Spoonbill's beak is (as the names suggests) spoon-shaped for sieving through shallow water for aquatic insects and molluscs

The Great White Egret has very long legs and neck for fishing in deeper water

The Little Egret is more delicate than its Great White cousin and feeds in shallower water for small fish, tadpoles and aquatic insects

The Black-tailed Godwit has a long probing bill for digging up worms and molluscs
that live in the mud

The elegant Black-winged Stilt has proportionately the longest legs of all for wading into deeper water and picking up very small prey items

The Avocet is one of the very few wading birds with an up-turned bill. It is used for extracting insects and molluscs from the very surface of the mud or water

I was lucky to capture this pair of Avocets mating