Large. Long necked, long thin straight bill, and extremely long thin legs. Sexes similar.
Male: Breeding: All white except, back, postocular area, hind neck, wings, both above and below, black. In flight legs extend well beyond tail. Black of back and wings separated from black of of neck by a white band. Eye, red. Bill, black. Legs, bright bubblegum pink. Non-breeding: Similar but hind neck may become greyish.
Female: Like male but back has brown tones.
Juveniles: Crown and hind neck greyish to almost black. Back, wings, dark brown. Legs, pinkish.
Other Names (World)
White-backed Stilt, Black-winged Stilt (when considered a subspecies)
White-backed Stilt (Himantopus melanurus) [XC395772]
by \u00c9tienne Leroy from Ilha do Pontal, Piratininga, Niter\u00f3i, Brazil (call)
White-backed Stilt (Himantopus melanurus) [XC774886]
by GABRIEL LEITE from Casablanca, Valparaiso, Valpara\u00edso, Chile (call)
Subspecies
Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus) and Pied Stilt (Himantopus leucocephalus) are retained as separate species by BirdLife International whereas Christidis and Boles (1994) and Turbott (1990) include Pied Stilt (Himantopus leucocephalus) as a subpecies of Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus). Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus) and White-backed Stilt (Himantopus melanurus) have been lumped into Himantopus mexicanus following AOU (1998), SACC (2006) and a review by the BirdLife Taxonomic Working Group.
Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus).
Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet