Waders moult from striking summer plumage to rather nondescript winter plumage. Many keen birders relish the challenge of identifying these drab winter plumages. With few exceptions waders are found near fresh and saline waterways, feeding along the shores or probing intertidal mud for worms. They include the long distance champions, the sandpipers and plovers, the lapwing and the odd stone curlew a lanky, cryptic nocturnal species with weird wailing cries. The gulls and tens are close relatives of the waders, although they look very different.
Many species inhabit the coasts and breed on offshore islands or isolated sandbanks.
Audouin s gull is handsome species that can be seen fairly regularly at Lac de Sidi Bourhaba and Tamri. These nocturnal birds of prey have soft feathers for silent flight, exceptional hearing and can turn their heads in a beds and dense vegetation during the day and feeds over marshlands at night. Marsh owls are often seen at dusk near the campsite at Merja Zerga. Woodpeckers Levaillant s woodpecker is eagerly sought by visiting bird-watchers because it is found only in the mountains of Morocco and Algeria. The Wryneck, a superbly camouflaged member of this family, is so named because it can turn its head in an astonishing arc.