Wildlife Wonders of Alaska - Lesser Yellowlegs

I certainly didn’t expect to take a photo of a cute lesser yellowlegs while we were in Alaska. But it really begged for a portrait! While we were standing on the Lower Platform at Brooks Lodge, patiently waiting for brown bears to appear, we heard a loud tweeting in the adjacent treetops. After a bit of a search, we found the source of the racket: a lesser yellowlegs. The sky was heavily overcast and bright. So I had to adjust my camera settings to take the sky into account. If I had taken the photo in fully automatic mode, the image of the bird would have been rendered much darker. It is funny that the bird quieted down once it had our attention! 

This long-legged shorebird is found in Alaska during the summer breeding season. Its habitat is an open boreal forest with scatter shallow wetlands. The yellowlegs forage in the water, sometimes using their bill to stir and search for food. Their diet consists mainly of insects, small fish, and crustaceans.