Black- winged Stilt

Once again it is time for the Wednesday post and this week I am showing you another bird that was at Barra Fish Farm, Innisfail, Queensland.  It is the turn of the Black Winged Stilt - Himantopus himantopus.

 

 

 It is a widely distributed very long-legged wader in the Avocet and stilt family (Recurvirostridae). Opinions differ as to whether the birds treated under the scientific name H. himantopus ought to be treated as a single species and if not, how many species to recognise. The scientific name Himantopus comes from the Greek meaning "strap foot" or "thong foot.

 

 

Adults are 33–36 cm long. They have long pink legs, a long thin black bill and are blackish above and white below, with a white head and neck with a varying amount of black.  

 

 

This little chick was only a couple of days old and one of its parents is the Black winged Stilt in second photograph. (taken 9 years old while birding with Alan Morris on the Central coast).

 

 

Males have a black back, often with greenish gloss.  Females' backs have a brown hue, contrasting with the black remiges. In the populations that have the top of the head normally white at least in winter, females tend to have less black on head and neck all year round, while males often have much black, particularly in summer. This difference is not clear-cut, however, and males usually get all-white heads in winter.

 

 

Immature birds are grey instead of black and have a markedly sandy hue on the wings, with light feather fringes appearing as a whitish line in flight.

 

The breeding habitat of all these stilts is marshes, shallow lakes and ponds. Some populations are migratory and move to the ocean coasts in winter; those in warmer regions are generally resident or short-range vagrants. In Europe, the Black-winged Stilt is a regular spring overshoot vagrant north of its normal range, occasionally remaining to breed in northern European countries, for example in Britain in 1987. 

 

 

These birds pick up their food from sand or water.

They mainly eat insects and crustaceans.

 

Little Egret with Black winged Stilts

 

 

 B.W Stilts in flight.

 The nest site is a bare spot on the ground near water. These birds often nest in small groups, sometimes with Avocets usually between August and November.  Inland and further North, they can nest any month after substantial rain.  Clutch is 3- 4 eggs; both parents incubate for 22 -24 days.

 

The Hawaiian population is endangered due to habitat loss and probably also introduced predators. The IUCN recognises 3 species at present, merging the Hawaiian and South American birds with the Black-necked Stilt; consequently, none of the three is listed as a threatened species.

 

 

  he Black-winged Stilt is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies.

As next Wednesday is Christmas Day, I will not be posting an Australian post, indeed over the Christmas period, I probably will not post much if any as I will be spending time with my family.  So for those bloggers who only look at my post on Wednesdays, I wish you a very Happy Christmas.

I have a short video which can be accessed at

http://youtu.be/aJsbwg0v_Vk

If there is a black space below,click it and the video will appear,




Thank you for visiting today and many thanks for all who left comments yesterday on any of my posts.

I amlinking this post to Wild Bird Wednesday