Pied Stilt
Himantopus leucocephalus· 反嘴鹬科(4 photos)
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Pied Stilt
33-38 cm. Aust. race of a widespread cosmopolitan species: adult's black nape and extremely long, slender pink legs are unmistakable. Immature: crown/nape washed blackish grey. Pairs, small parties, open companies of hundreds: often with Red-necked Avocets, but seldom in such huge, compact flocks as Banded Stilt. Wades in shallows, occasionally swims. In flight, wings black above and below; trailing pink legs nearly double length of body. Noisy and demonstrative near nest; bobs head, flutters overhead with trailing legs.
- Other name
- Pied or White-headed Stilt.
- Similar Species
- Banded Stilt, Non-breeding and imm.
- Voice
- repeated falsetto 'yap' or 'boo', mostly when nesting; imm. has thin whistle.
- Habitat
- fresh and brackish swamps; shallow river or lake margins; flooded claypans; dams, sewage ponds, commercial saltfields, saltmarsh, tidal estuaries, mudflats.
- Breeding
- mostly Aug.-Dec. in se. Aust., but almost any month after rain. Often in autumn-winter in tropics.
- Nest
- of water plants, weeds, often built up; in open colonies on low hummocks in water, among dead bushes, at times floating; or in depression on dry ground, with little lining.
- Eggs
- 3-4; dark olive, blotched and spotted dark brown.
- Range & Status
- widespread in suitable habitat across mainland Aust. except waterless deserts, Nullarbor Plain. Scarce Kimberley region (WA) and parts of C. York Pen.(Q). Seasonally dispersive or nomadic, according to rainfall. Moves inland in response to autumn-winter rainfall; coastward into se. and sw. Aust. after winter-spring rains; casual Tas., especially in mainland drought. Casual Lord Howe I., Norfolk I. Also NG, NZ, N. America, Hawaii.
