An elegant shorebird perched on long, yellow-green legs, the Stilt Sandpiper is distinctive with its long, slightly curved bill. In breeding plumage, a bright chestnut crown and ear patch light up its neatly barred, brown-and-white plumage. Stilt Sandpipers forage in freshwater habitats and avoid the tidal mudflats used by so many sandpipers. They wade sometimes belly deep, probing for invertebrates in mud in a manner similar to the shorter-legged dowitchers. These long-distance migrants fly south through the middle of North America, then cross the Caribbean to winter in South America.