5 Avocet Chicks Hatch At Aquarium Of The Pacific In Long Beach

LONG BEACH, CA — Five baby American avocet chicks hatched at the Aquarium of the Pacific, the Aquarium announced Monday. The chicks and their parents are now on view in the lower enclosure in the Guam Kingfisher aviary near Shark Lagoon. The parents, who will take turns tending to the chicks, have lived at the Aquarium since August 2017.

The chicks will replace their juvenile feathers with adult feathers (called "fledging") at about 27 to 28 days old, and full-grown adults stand at about 18 inches tall. They have a white body, black and white wings, and long, slender legs, the Aquarium said. During breeding season, they have a pale rust-colored head and neck.

"In the wild, American avocets live on beaches, around shallow lakes and ponds, and on coastal and inland mudflats throughout the western United States, southern Canada, Mexico, and Baja," the Aquarium said. "This shorebird species migrates to southern coastal areas, including Mexico and Baja and the southeast and Atlantic coasts, or California valleys in the winter."

Avocets are precocial birds, which means chicks are able to walk around and forage immediately after hatching, the press release said. The chicks will quickly learn to eat different types of insects and worms, including: blood worms, meal worms, wax worms and crickets. As they get older, they will forage for krill and small fish — avocets search for food by wading in shallow water and filtering food by sweeping their bills from side to side.

The American avocet population declined in the 1960s and 70s, when agriculture and development began to shrink wetland habitats, but since then, their numbers have rebounded. They are currently listed as a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the press release said.