This bird has America's longest bill - at least the longest of all waders - and in proportion to its body! This long-billed curlew breeds in large parts of the western United States and spends the winters in the southernmost parts of the country and in Mexico. The distribution has decreased in the east and for a while the species was regarded as "threatened". However, it has recovered in the west, but is still rare in the east. It feeds on a variety of small animals, mainly various crustaceans, but also insects and sometimes other birds' eggs. This individual was probably on a "winter vacation" in the wetlands at the mouth of the Tijuana River.