Conspicuous, Widespread, Unmistakeable… Black-winged Stilts

By Keith Hutton on January 15, 2015 in Other

Stilts are tall, slim wading birds that are graceful, striking and unmistakeable. Black-winged Stilts in Australia are representative of a group of populations that together occupy much of America, Eurasia and Africa, as well as Australia. Stilts worldwide look very similar and are certainly closely related, but the nature and extent of the relationship is a matter of debate. All are often treated as races or subspecies of a single cosmopolitan species, or alternatively as a group of distinct species, with one for each major land mass.

Black-winged Stilts in Australia are immaculate black-backed birds with conspicuous white underparts, black needle bills and immensely long, thin pink legs, longer relative to body length than those of any other birds except flamingos. Adults are black on the nape and hind-neck; sexes are similar and there are no seasonal variations. Immature birds resemble adults without the black on the head and neck. They are noisy when threatened or disturbed and call persistently with high pitched and annoying yelps, not unlike yapping pups. They fly with quick shallow wing beats, their amazing skinny legs – nearly double the length of the body – dangling or trailing out behind them well beyond the end of the tail. In the air they are distinctive, with white rumps and tails contrasting against long, black pointed wings.

Black-winged Stilts in Australia are believed to be in the same population as those from the Philippines, eastern Indonesia, New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands south to New Zealand. They frequent fresh or brackish swamps, estuarine mudflats, margins of lakes and rivers, sewage farms, flooded paddocks and rice fields, where they are seen most often in pairs, small groups and loose flocks. They are fairly common in suitable wetland habitats in the Sydney region from the Hawkesbury Swamps in the north to Lake Illawarra in the south, including Botany Bay, Centennial Parklands and Olympic Park.

Black-winged stilts are specialist feeders that forage actively on saturated mud or in shallow water up to their bellies, especially where there is dense short grass or similar emergent vegetation. Feeding occurs at any time of day or night. These birds wade easily when feeding, and pick daintily at the surface of water or wet mud, chasing fast-moving prey or scything their bills through the water from side to side. Some times they plunge-feed, immersing their heads completely, and other times they filter-feed close to the water surface, or they probe. Aquatic and terrestrial insects and their larvae, spiders, molluscs, crustaceans, small fish, worms and some seeds are all on the menu.

In Australia Black-winged Stilts are breeding residents that are sedentary or nomadic depending on rainfall. They are common and widespread in suitable habitat throughout the country generally, except in Tasmania where they are casual visitors. The national population has not changed in recent times and the conservation status for Black-winged Stilts in all mainland states and territories of Australia is considered to be secure.