Pied Avocet
Avocette élégante · Kluut
The pied avocet is unmistakable: brilliant white with black patches, blue-grey legs and a slender, upturned bill, which it sweeps through shallow water like a scythe to catch crustaceans and worms. Its call sounds like « kluit-kluit », which gave it its Dutch name. In England it had disappeared as a breeding bird by about 1840, until the flooded fields of the war brought four pairs back in 1947. That is why it now appears in the logo of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). In the Vendée it can be seen all year round, often in groups.
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