Black-necked Stilts

Another migrating bird to the warm Southwest. These Black-necked Stilts were found on a golf course in a little pond enjoying the early morning... more

by Robert Bales

Title

Black-necked Stilts

Artist

Robert Bales

Medium

Photograph - Photo

Description

Another migrating bird to the warm Southwest. These Black-necked Stilts were found on a golf course in a little pond enjoying the early morning sun.
The Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus) is a locally abundant shorebird of American wetlands and coastlines. It is found from the coastal areas of California through much of the interior western United States and along the Gulf of Mexico as far east as Florida, then south through Central America and the Caribbean to northwest Brazil southwest Peru, east Ecuador and the Gal�pagos Islands. The northernmost populations, particularly those from inland, are migratory, wintering from the extreme south of the United States to southern Mexico, rarely as far south as Costa Rica; on the Baja California peninsula it is only found regularly in winter.
The Black-necked Stilt is found in estuarine, lacustrine, salt pond and emergent wetland habitats; it is generally a lowland bird but in Central America has been found up to 8,200 ft (2,500 m) ASL and commonly seen in llanos habitat in northern South America. It is also found in seasonally flooded wetlands. Use of salt evaporation ponds has increased significantly since 1960 in the USA, and they may now be the primary wintering habitat; these salt ponds are especially prevalent in southern San Francisco Bay. At the Salton Sea, the Black-necked Stilt is resident year-round.
This bird is locally abundant in the San Joaquin Valley, where it commonly winters.[7] It is common to locally abundant in appropriate habitat in southern California from April to September.[6]
It also breeds along lake shores in northeastern California and southeastern Oregon as well as along the Colorado River. In North America outside California, the Black-necked Stilt rarely breeds inland, but it is known as a breeding bird in riparian locales in Arizona[8] and elsewhere in the southern USA. In Arizona, Black-necked Stilts may be seen along artificially created lakes and drainage basins in the Phoenix metropolitan area, in remnant riparian habitat.

Uploaded

January 25th, 2014