Black-winged Stilt

Distinguished by an exceptionally slender and elegant silhouette, this wading bird of the family Recurvirostridae possesses the longest coral-red or pink legs relative to its body size of any bird species, except for the flamingo. It measures between 13 and 16 inches (33 to 40 centimeters) in length, with a wingspan ranging from 29 to 33 inches (75 to 85 centimeters). The plumage exhibits a striking contrast, featuring a pure white head, neck, and underparts, while the back and wings are glossy black with a greenish sheen in adult males, and a duller, brownish-black hue in females. Its bill is long, straight, extremely fine, and black, specifically adapted for probing mud and water. The eyes feature a vibrant bright red iris, whereas juveniles display more muted, grayish-brown plumage tones with pale flesh-colored legs.

Geographical distribution: This cosmopolitan species has a remarkably vast geographic range, occurring across southern and western Europe, extensive regions of Africa, southern Asia, and parts of Oceania. Northern populations, such as those breeding in the Iberian Peninsula and southern France, are migratory, wintering in the African continent or the Mediterranean basin, while tropical populations are generally sedentary or perform nomadic movements dictated by seasonal rainfall patterns.

Habitat: It primarily frequents shallow wetlands, utilizing both freshwater and brackish or saltwater ecosystems. It is commonly found in marshes, coastal lagoons, salt pans, estuaries, and flooded agricultural fields like rice paddies. The species prefers open, flat environments with low vegetation, which allows for maximum visibility to detect predators, requiring exposed mudflats or very shallow water depths to forage effectively using its extraordinarily long limbs.

Feeding: Its diet is strictly carnivorous, consisting of a diverse array of aquatic invertebrates. It feeds predominantly on aquatic insects and their larvae (such as beetles, flies, and dragonflies), small mollusks, crustaceans, polychaete worms, and oligochaetes. Occasionally, it will capture small fish and tadpoles. It utilizes multiple foraging techniques, most notably visual pecking from the water surface or substrate, but also employs tactile sweeping of its bill through turbid waters to locate hidden prey.

Behavior: Highly gregarious in nature, this species often aggregates in small, loose flocks during the breeding season and forms larger, more compact groups during migration and the winter months. It is an extremely noisy and vocal bird, constantly emitting a sharp, metallic, and repetitive alarm call transliterated as a loud "kip-kip-kip". When a threat approaches the nest, adults perform highly coordinated injury-feigning displays, pretending to have a broken wing or to limp to lure predators away from their offspring.

Nesting: The breeding period takes place between April and June, with birds nesting in loose, semicolonial groups, sometimes alongside other waders. The nest is a shallow scrape on the ground, typically located on small islets, muddy dikes, or dry mud flats close to the water’s edge, lined with dry stems, shells, and small stones. The typical clutch size is 4 eggs, olive-green or sandy-buff in color, heavily blotched with dark brown. Both parents share the task of incubation for 22 to 25 days. The chicks are nidifugous, leaving the nest just hours after hatching and foraging independently under parental supervision until they fledge at 28 to 32 days of age.

Conservation status: Globally, the species is evaluated as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List, owing to its extremely large distribution range and stable or increasing population trends in several regions. Nonetheless, local populations remain vulnerable to wetland habitat loss and degradation, water pollution from agricultural runoff, fluctuating water levels in managed saltworks, and human disturbance along coastal nesting beaches.