Large. Long necked, long thin straight bill, and extremely long thin legs. Sexes similar.
Male: Breeding: All white except, back, hind neck (leucocephalous only), wings, both above and below, black. In flight legs extend well beyond tail. Eye, red. Bill, black. Legs, pinkish to pinkish-red. Non-breeding: Similar but crown and hind neck may become greyish.
Female: Like male but back has brown tones.
Immatures: Crown and hind neck greyish to almost black. Back, wings, dark brown. Feathers edged with buff giving a scaly appearance. Legs, pinkish-red.
Habitat
Fresh and brackish swamps. Shallow river or lake margins. Flooded claypans. Dams, sewerage ponds, saltfields, saltmarsh, tidal estuaries, mudflats.
Habits
In pairs or family groups when breeding and in small to large flocks outside the breeding season.
Food
Aquatic animals and plants.
Voice
Single yelping or puppy-like barking call, persistently repeated, in contact. Sharper in alarm. Higher-pitched warning piping notes in flight. Varied, short nasal, bleating.
Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus) [XC558418]
by Sunny Tseng from Salinas da Ribeira do Almargem, Tavira, Faro, Portugal (call)
Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus) [XC376633]
by Frank Lambert from Hy\u00e8res, Var, Provence-Alpes-C\u00f4te d'Azur, Spain (call)
Nest
A slight hollow in mud at the water's edge or a compact structure, composed of dried aquatic plants, in a swamp, near water, or a raised platform over shallow water. Breeding is usually in colonies, but nests are scattered along the margins of lakes or swamps.
Eggs (Guide)
Usually 4; smooth, dull green or stone, heavily marked with purple-brown and black with underlying lavender lines; pyriform; about 45 x 29 mm. Incubation: 22 - 25 days; both sexes, in short spells.
Young
Precocial, nidifugous.
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.
Some authors do not recognise the above splits and / or lumpings. In these cases we have subspecies.
Forms superspecies with Black Stilt (Himantopus novaezelandiae), with which known to hybridize and which is sometimes considered conspecific. Subspecies often considered to warrant recognition of 2 - 5 distinct species. Subspecies can be split into three groups: nominate subspecies; "pied" subspecies, leucocephalus; and "black-necked" subspecies knudseni, mexicanus and melanurus. Geographical variation also claimed in southern Africa and Sri Lanka, in forms meridionalis and ceylonensis respectively, but both show considerable overlap with other populations of nominate himantopus.
The following 5 subspecies are recognised:
himantopus (Linnaeus, 1758) - Southern Eurasia, India, Sri Lanka, south-eastern Asia and Africa.
leucocephalous (Gould, 1837) - Philippines and south through Indonesia to the Bismarck Islands, Australia and New Zealand. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Pied Stilt (Himantopus leucocephalus).
mexicanus (P.L.S.Müller, 1776) - Western, southern USA to Peru and eastern Brazil, Hawaiian Islands. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus).
knudseni (Stejneger, 1887) - Hawaiian Islands. Considered by some authors to be a subspecies of Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus).
melanurus (Vieillot, 1817) - Peru and north-eastern Brazil to south-central Argentina. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, White-backed Stilt (Himantopus melanurus).
Similar Species
Pied Avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta)
Larger. Bill is dramatically upturned. Legs are blue-grey. Head has more black. Wings have more white which shows as two wing bars in flight.
Compare Images
The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Pizzey, G., and Knight, E., 1997, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 19691 5
Field Guide to Australian Birds Morecombe, M., 2000, Steve Parish Publishing Pty Ltd. ISBN 1 876282 10 X
Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Simpson, K., and Day, N., 1999, 6th Edition, Viking ISBN 0 670 87918 5
Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds 1988, 2nd Edition, Reader's Digest ISBN 0 949819 99 9
What Bird is That? 1984, Revised Edition, Angus & Robertson, Sydney ISBN 0 207 14846 5
Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds 1990 - , Oxford University Press, Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553244 9