Lesser Yellowlegs

A group of four lesser yellowlegs were feeding in the flats.  This bird is a shorebird related to the sandpiper, and it eats small fish and invertebrates. I saw one catch a minnow. Few birds in this family have yellow/orange legs except lesser yellowlegs, greater yellowlegs, and upland sandpiper, giving me more confidence in my identification of the species.

The Chicagoland area where this photo was taken is far from either the northern Canada summer home or the southern U.S. to South America winter home of the lesser yellowlegs, but these birds have been here all summer.  I assume they stopped here on their migration route north, and due to favorable breeding and feeding conditions they stayed.

These birds were a distance from the camera, and I stretched the limit of the lens and cropping to post this photo.