Black Stilt
Himantopus novaezelandiae
All black stilt with long red legs and long thin black bill, endemic to New Zealand. Juveniles have a white head, neck, and breast, with black around the eye. Breeds only on open braided rivers and connected wetlands of the Mackenzie Basin in South Canterbury and North Otago. Favors shallow waters of side streams and pools to feed on invertebrates. Some birds move to northern New Zealand harbors over winter. Juvenile Black Stilts are similar to Pied Stilts, but have shorter legs and longer bill. Hybridizes with the native pied stilt.
Identification
Black stilts are a medium-sized (220 g) wader with extremely long pink legs, red eyes, distinctively black plumage, and a long slender black bill. Juveniles have a white breast, neck and head, with a black patch around the eyes, and black belly feathers that distinguish them from pied stilts. Black adult plumage appears in their first or second year. Black plumage may be an adaptation to "absorb heat better in the cold, windswept habitat of glacial riverbeds and lakeshores".<p>Hybrids between black and pied stilts are very variable in their plumage, but usually have black breast feathers, which pied stilts never do.
Taxonomy
Black stilts are one of several species in the genus Himantopus, classified along with avocets in the family Recurvirostridae. Although genetically and behaviourally distinct from pied stilts (Himantopus himantopus), they are able to successfully hybridise with them. Hybridisation and dilution of the gene pool is one reason black stilts are threatened with extinction. Black and pied stilts in New Zealand represent two colonisations of pied stilt ancestors from Australia: the first, long ago, giving rise to melanistic descendants, the second in the early 19th century.
- Scientific name
- Himantopus novaezelandiae
- Authority
- Gould, 1841
- Order
- Charadriiformes
- Family
- Recurvirostridae
- Genus
- Himantopus
Range and habitat
Although black stilts currently breed only in braided river systems in the South Island, subfossil bones show that prior to human arrival they were found in habitats as diverse as narrow bush streams in Hawkes Bay, and a wetland lake surrounded by forest in North Canterbury. In the nineteenth century they bred on riverbeds and in wetlands of the central and eastern North Island and most of the South Island except Fiordland. As late as the 1940s they were still common in South Canterbury and Central Otago, and nesting occurred in Central Otago as late as 1964. Throughout their range they have been almost entirely replaced by pied stilts, which colonised New Zealand after human settlement and now number approximately 30,000.<p>Currently black stilts breed only in the upper Waitaki River system in the Mackenzie Basin. Most black stilts will also overwinter in the Mackenzie Basin, but about 10% of the population, especially hybrids and those paired with pied stilts, migrate to North Island harbours such as Kawhia and Kaipara in January for the winter.
- Breeding range
- AU : c South I. (New Zealand)
- Non-breeding range
- to North I. (New Zealand)
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Migration pattern: Resident species.
Conservation
Population trend: rising.
- Population trend
- rising
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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Aythya marila
Round-headed diving duck. Males have black breast, medium gray back, white sides, and yellow eye. Head appears black with a greenish sheen in good lighting, never purplish. Females are brown overall, grayer on body in winter, with white patch at base of bill and yellow eye. Very similar to Lesser Scaup; note smoothly rounded head without tall peak, puffier cheeks, more extensive white stripe on wing in flight, and larger, broader bill. Can be similar to immature male and female Tufted Duck, but note smoothly rounded head and more extensive white bill base patch in females. Often in flocks with other Aythya ducks. Tends to prefer saltwater bays and coves, but also found in freshwater.
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Anarhynchus pallidus
Small, beautiful, pale-gray plover. Adults show a diagnostic chestnut band across the chest. Immatures are very plain but show a gray chest band. Found mainly on manmade saltpans and natural alkaline lakes, both along the coast and inland. Sometimes occurs in other coastal wetlands but virtually never on fresh water. Call is a quiet “peep”. Immatures can be confused with immature White-fronted Plover but normally show a blurry gray chest band and are colder gray on the back.
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