The American avocet was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae.

[2] Gmelin based his description on that by the English ornithologist John Latham who in 1785 had described and illustrated the American avocet in his A General Synopsis of Birds.

The breeding habitat consists of marshes, beaches, prairie ponds, and shallow lakes in the mid-west, as far north as southern Canada.

[8] These breeding grounds are largely in areas just east of the rocky mountains including parts of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Utah, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, and even down to parts of New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.

There are resident populations in the Mexican States of Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí, Guanajuato, Hidalgo, Mexico City and Puebla, and in Central California.

[11] Flocks ranging from 50 to 300 avocets migrate together to their breeding sites together during peak season, which is typically in the spring.

[15] The American avocet breeds in anything from freshwater to hypersaline wetlands in the western and mid-west United States.

[15] Throughout the breeding season, these pairs engage in a series of copulatory displays, which is initiated by either sex and often involves preening.

Nesting takes place near water, often alongside black-necked stilts, usually on small islands or mucky shorelines.

They make shallow indentations in the ground for their nest and line it with grass, feathers, pebbles or other small objects.

[14] One case study of the 1968 and 1969 breeding seasons suggests that this number allows for the highest rate of hatching success.

Usually, this entails the avocet pecking while walking or wading on the shore, but it can also swim to expand foraging area.

Contaminants and toxins such as DDT, selenium, and methylmercury, have increased in American Avocet habitats in recent years.

While agricultural and industrial environments have become alternate habitat for the avocet, natural wetlands are decreasing rapidly.

[11] Additionally, increases in the salinity levels of wetlands have had adverse effects on the breeding and development of avocets.

[19] In his famous The Birds of America, John James Audubon describes a day of stalking and spying on the avocet.