Avocet Recurvirostra avosetta

Large elegant black-and-white wader, symbol of the RSPB

Habitat: shallow brackish or freshwater lagoons near the coast

Summer visitor to East Anglia, breeding at two or three Essex sites; winters in Suffolk, Essex and SW Britain

Strongly patterned black-and-white wader with long blue-grey legs and long black up-turned bill

A filter feeder, often seen head down in shallow water, moving its head from side to side with scything movements

Eats crustaceans and insects; flies with legs trailing

Nest is a bare scrape on the ground

1 brood April – May; 4 buff eggs spotted black

Went extinct as a British breeding bird: its recovery was the RSPB's first great success