Bird
American Avocet
Recurvirostra americana
Passes through Alabama on migration. Found in 2 of 67 counties, across 7 habitats.
- Here
- On migration
- Nesting
- Not known to nest here
- Range
- 2 of 67 counties
- Habitats
- 7

At a glance
- Group
- Birds
- Here
- On migration
- Nesting
- Not known to nest here
- Range
- 2 of 67 counties
- Habitats
- 7
- Habitat models
- Winter
Where it lives
The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.
Habitats in Alabama 7
Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.

Open sand of beaches, dunes and the hollows between them.
Coastal tidal marshes (salinity not stated)
Tidal marshes of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts where the source does not say whether the water is fresh, brackish or salt. A stated salinity files the marsh under freshwater tidal marshes or salt and brackish marshes instead.
Disturbed and introduced wetlands
Wet ground taken over by weedy or introduced plants after disturbance, such as common reed, Chinese tallow or tamarisk stands; the upland counterpart is roadsides, fields and disturbed ground.
Coastal marshes flooded by salty or brackish tides.
Salt and brackish open water of sounds, bays and estuaries, with the mud and sand flats and seagrass beds that tides cover and uncover; the vegetated marsh is salt and brackish marshes.
Roadsides, fields and disturbed ground
Ground opened by people: roadsides, old fields, pastures, fencerows and lots.
Other habitats in its models (77)
Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Alabama.
- Open Water (Aquaculture) Winter.
- Barren Land Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Sandy Beach Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Beach Winter.
- Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Winter.
- Unconsolidated Shore Winter.
- North American Warm Desert Active and Stabilized Dune Winter.
- Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Sandy Beach Winter.
- Upper Texas Coast Beach Winter.
- Louisiana Beach Winter.
- Southeast Florida Beach Winter.
- South Florida Shell Hash Beach Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Sea Island Beach Winter.
- Southwest Florida Beach Winter.
- Mediterranean California Southern Coastal Dune Winter.
- Texas Coastal Bend Beach Winter.
- North American Warm Desert Badland Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- Temperate Pacific Intertidal Mudflat Winter.
- Temperate Pacific Freshwater Mudflat Winter.
- North American Warm Desert Playa Winter.
- Mediterranean California Serpentine Barrens Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- North American Warm Desert Pavement Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- Chihuahuan Mixed Salt Desert Scrub Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- Sonora-Mojave Mixed Salt Desert Scrub Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- Chihuahuan Gypsophilous Grassland and Steppe Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- Columbia Plateau Steppe and Grassland Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Xeric River Dune Winter.
- Colorado Plateau Mixed Low Sagebrush Shrubland Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- Inter-Mountain Basins Mat Saltbush Shrubland Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- Mediterranean California Subalpine Meadow Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- North Pacific Montane Grassland Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- Northern Rocky Mountain Lower Montane, Foothill and Valley Grassland Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- Rocky Mountain Subalpine-Montane Mesic Meadow Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- Southern Rocky Mountain Montane-Subalpine Grassland Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- Central Mixedgrass Prairie Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- Chihuahuan Sandy Plains Semi-Desert Grassland Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- Columbia Basin Foothill and Canyon Dry Grassland Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- Inter-Mountain Basins Semi-Desert Grassland Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- Columbia Basin Palouse Prairie Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- Western Great Plains Foothill and Piedmont Grassland Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- Western Great Plains Sand Prairie Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- Western Great Plains Shortgrass Prairie Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- Tamaulipan Savanna Grassland Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- Tamaulipan Clay Grassland Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- South Texas Sand Sheet Grassland Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- Chihuahuan Loamy Plains Desert Grassland Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- California Mesic Serpentine Grassland Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- California Northern Coastal Grassland Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- Texas-Louisiana Coastal Prairie Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- Central and Upper Texas Coast Dune and Coastal Grassland Winter.
- South Texas Dune and Coastal Grassland Winter.
- Recently Burned Forest Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- Introduced Upland Vegetation - Annual Grassland Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh Winter.
- Temperate Pacific Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Salt Marsh Winter.
- Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Large Natural Lakeshore Winter.
- South Florida Everglades Sawgrass Marsh Winter.
- Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Winter.
- North American Arid West Emergent Marsh Winter.
- Temperate Pacific Freshwater Emergent Marsh Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh Winter.
- Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Fresh and Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Winter.
- South Florida Mangrove Swamp Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Winter.
- North Pacific Bog and Fen Winter.
- Mediterranean California Subalpine-Montane Fen Winter.
- Mediterranean California Serpentine Fen Winter.
- Texas Saline Coastal Prairie Winter.
- Eastern Great Plains Wet Meadow, Prairie, and Marsh Winter.
- Chihuahuan-Sonoran Desert Bottomland and Swale Grassland Winter.
- Inter-Mountain Basins Greasewood Flat Winter, only within 120 m of water.
- Western Great Plains Floodplain Winter.
Seasons in Alabama
- Migratory: does not nest here, in 2 of 67 counties.
Also found in this habitat
Plants 15
Plants named in NatureServe descriptions of these habitats that grow in Alabama. Shared habitat, not food.
- Groundsel-treeBaccharis halimifolia
- Seashore SaltgrassDistichlis spicata
- Yaupon HollyIlex vomitoria
- Black NeedlerushJuncus roemerianus
- Common WaxmyrtleMorella cerifera
- SwitchgrassPanicum virgatum
- Sand Live OakQuercus geminata
- Live OakQuercus virginiana
- Olney's ThreesquareSchoenoplectus americanus
- Common Three Square BulrushSchoenoplectus pungens
- Serenoa repensSerenoa repens
- Saltmarsh CordgrassSporobolus alterniflorus
- Saltmeadow CordgrassSporobolus pumilus
- Seashore DropseedSporobolus virginicus
- Chinese Tallow-treeTriadica sebifera
Wildlife 242
Other animals whose habitat models include the same habitats in Alabama. Not sighting records.
- Snow GooseChen caerulescens
- Snowy EgretEgretta thula
- Surf ScoterMelanitta perspicillata
- Swamp SparrowMelospiza georgiana
- American OystercatcherHaematopus palliatus
- American White PelicanPelecanus erythrorhynchos
- Black SkimmerRynchops niger
- Blue-winged TealAnas discors
- Brewer's BlackbirdEuphagus cyanocephalus
- Brown PelicanPelecanus occidentalis
- Common LoonGavia immer
- Common YellowthroatGeothlypis trichas
- Cooper's HawkAccipiter cooperii
- Eastern Brown PelicanPelecanus occidentalis carolinensis
- Eastern KingbirdTyrannus tyrannus
- European StarlingSturnus vulgaris
- Glaucous GullLarus hyperboreus
- Gray KingbirdTyrannus dominicensis
- Greater ScaupAythya marila
- Gull-billed TernGelochelidon nilotica
- Hooded MerganserLophodytes cucullatus
- Lesser ScaupAythya affinis
- Little Blue HeronEgretta caerulea
- Little GullHydrocoloeus minutus
NatureServe Explorer, CC BY 4.0. USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.
Sources
- USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models (2001)
- USGS GAP winter habitat model for American Avocet Elevation 0 to 2,896 m
- USGS Gap Analysis Project range maps (2001), modeled by watershed; migratory gives no dates
- NatureServe Explorer (CC BY 4.0), habitat names
- US Census TIGER/Line counties
- Names follow the USGS Gap Analysis Project (2001)

































