Lesser yellowlegs

Like any good community, birding comes with a lot of unapproachable jargon. ‘Lifers’; ‘fluddles’; referring to birds by their four-letter banding codes instead of their names (PIPL for piping plover, etc.); inscrutable nicknames for beloved birding spots that don’t appear on any map. As a rule, these linguistic contortions serve mostly to make things confusing for non-bird people, and for us to be able to identify each other. Classic in-group out-group stuff.

One notable exception to this is the universal birder habit of referring to shorebirds as “shorbs” which is, obviously, delightful, and a net gain of good to the world.

The yellowlegs is a quintessential Michigan shorb. Don’t ask me how I know that this one is a lesser yellowlegs and not a greater, because I have no idea and no advice except to surround yourself with people who are good at shorebirds, so they can do the ID for you.