The Willet is a large, plain gray shorebird that hides a spectacular secret: at rest it looks nondescript, stocky and gray with a straight, heavy bill and grayish legs, but the moment it flies it flashes a bold black-and-white pattern across the wings that is unlike anything else and instantly identifies it. Loud and vocal, it gives a ringing "pill-will-willet" call that carries across the shore, the source of its name.
Willets breed both on the northern Great Plains (the interior form) and along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, and in Michigan they occur as rare migrants, mostly in spring, appearing on Great Lakes shorelines, beaches, mudflats, and marsh edges, usually singly or in small numbers. They probe and pick for crabs, worms, and other prey along the water's edge. The Willet's striking wing flash and loud calls make even a lone migrant a memorable and easily identified find among the state's shorebirds.
Feeds on crabs, marine and aquatic worms, aquatic insects, mollusks, and other invertebrates, probing mud and sand and picking prey from shorelines and shallow water. It forages along beaches, mudflats, and marsh edges, using its heavy straight bill to extract prey.
At rest the Willet is nondescript gray, but in flight it flashes a striking black-and-white wing pattern that is diagnostic. This dramatic transformation is one of the best ways to identify the species.
From its loud, ringing "pill-will-willet" call, which it gives insistently, especially on the breeding grounds. The call carries well across the shore.
As a rare migrant, mostly in spring, on Great Lakes shorelines, beaches, mudflats, and marsh edges, usually singly or in small numbers. It breeds on the northern Great Plains and along the coasts, not in the state.
Juveniles are grayer and more scaly-backed than breeding adults, without the heavy barring. Nothing about the plumage matters much compared with the flash of the black-and-white wing stripe when the bird flies.
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