Birdland: Bobbin Along

Long-Billed Dowitchers are plump shorebirds with very long bills, relatively long legs and short tails. Birders marvel at the way they eat, probing deeply into mud and sand in an up-and-down motion likened to the needle of a sewing machine. Long-Billed Dowitchers are monogamous; the males are known to perform flight songs hovering 60 feet in the air with their wings raised, engaging in impressive acrobatic displays. This couple was photographed at Bluff Lake just east of Park Hill by Mark Silverstein.