Tringa semipalmata
Order Charadriiformes
Family Scolopacidae
Subfamily Tringinae
Adult in summer.— Upper parts brownish-gray; lower parts white; fore neck and upper breast streaked with dusky, the sides barred with buff; wing blackish, showing when spread a conspicuous patch of white; basal half of the tail white.
Adult in winter.— Upper parts ash-gray; under parts white; wing as in summer.
Immature.— Upper parts brownish-gray, tinged with buff; sides tinged with buff, finely mottled with gray; wings as in adult.
The Willet is a rare migrant along the sea-coast in August and early September. Along the Sound stragglers are sometimes seen in May, and very rarely in summer.
The great contrast of black and white in the outstretched wing readily distinguishes the Willet. The much commoner Black-bellied Plover also shows white in the wings and at the base of the tail, but should be distinguished by its shorter legs and much shorter bill.
Hoffmann – A Guide to the Birds of New England and Eastern New York (1904)