Alternate Adult female is larger and more colorful than male, has a thick black vertical stripe on the upper neck that flares and becomes dark chesnut-brown on the lower neck, white throat, orange wash on the foreneck and upper breast, bluish-gray crown, bluish-gray and chesnut-brown upperparts, white underparts, and very slender black bill. Alternate male has diffuse orange wash on neck, white throat, and thin black eyeline; upper parts are more earth-toned than female. Basic Adult is grayish, with light gray upperparts, gray hindneck, a gray post-ocular stripe that curls down the side of the neck, a white throat, pale supercilium, white underparts, and yellow legs. Juvenile has a dark crown, a buffy hindneck with fine dark spotting and streaking, and a dark scaly back pattern with blackish feathers edged in buff. It is mostly white below, with buffy wash on he neck and upper flanks, a white face with thin dark eyeline, and yellow legs. In all plumages, note white rump in flight.

Length: 23 (cm) Wingspan: 43 (cm)

Voice:

Variety of grunting notes, including the most common call which sounds like heavily muffled air horn.

Habitat:

Wetlands, marshes, ponds, lakes, vegetated mudflats.

Behavior:

Wades or walks deliberately on wet ground, or swims in meandering patterns. Nest is a lined depression concealed among marsh vegetation. Males, drabber than females, incubate eggs and raise young.

Feeding:

Probes with long bill in mud or wet soil, picking up shrimp, insects, and other small aquatic organisms.