Weekly Puzzler #190: Handsome Black and White Bird with Long, Red Legs, and Needle-Like Bill

Hello and Happy Saturday! Can you tell that spring is just around the corner or is it still cold and snowy where you live?

Woo hoo, spring is fast approaching which means there are only a couple more weeks to get your name into the quarterly drawing for my free giveaway. All you have to do is be a blog subscriber and guess at least one puzzler correctly. On the first day of spring–March 20th, I will choose one lucky winner and send him/her a sampler pack of my Beauty is Everywhere greeting cards. You have two more chances this quarter!

My next puzzler features a video of a bird I saw when I was in the Caribbean recently, but this bird can be seen in the United States too. It is a shorebird that you can see along the Gulf coast, in Florida and occasionally, on up the eastern coast up to New England. This bird is quite handsome, with a black and white body, long, skinny red legs and a needle-like, straight beak.

I want to give a special shout-out to some new friends visiting the United States all the way from New Zealand who said they might try to do the puzzlers, even though all of these might be animals they’ve never heard of or seen! Bevan, Jenna, Kayan, Trace and Sienne–You don’t have this exact bird in New Zealand, but you do have two birds that are relatives of it, with each of these having the same bright legs as our weekly puzzler #190.

It is especially striking when you see a whole flock of these flying together, with their long, red legs, hanging out from behind their black and white bodies.

Here are some more photos:

Notice the white belly, straight bill and red legs, which, in this photo, are a little muddy!

And lastly, this one, which if you look closely, you will see a bird in the back that’s not the same as the others. It is a different species, and like the first one, can be found in the United States. This is a bonus puzzler! If you can identify both birds correctly, I will enter your name 3 times instead of one!

If you want to guess, use the comment box below. As I said, all correct answers will be entered in the quarterly drawing.

Good luck. And have a fabulous weekend! Try to make time to get outside–no matter the weather–to see what’s happening in your neck of the woods.

See you again soon. Oh, and don’t forget! This is the weekend we turn our clocks ahead one hour on Saturday night.