Black-winged Stilt

Description:

Also known as Common or Pied stilt is a very long-legged wader, belonging to the family Recurvirostridae (Avocet & Stilt). The adult bird is white, with black back and wing covers, and long red legs. Head coloring varies, from pure white to dusky grayish coloring in patches. The bill is very long, thin and black. The juvenile has rather grayish legs, brown wings and dusky head.

Habitat:

Here seen on shores of lake Turkana, foraging with other shorebirds (ruffs, godwit, stints, plovers, ibises, storks...). This bird is a common palearctic migrant all over the subsaharan Africa

Notes:

Lake Turkana is saline desert lake and the biggest water mass of Rift valley lake system. Currently, this lake is in danger - over the past decade, Ethiopia has embarked on a massive plan which includes constructing dams, developing water-intensive irrigated cotton and sugar plantations, and irrigation canals and other infrastructure in Ethiopia’s Omo River Basin. These developments are predicted to dramatically reduce the water supply of Lake Turkana, as Omo River provides 90 percent of the water in it. Dramatic reductions in freshwater input from the Omo River into Lake Turkana will increase levels of salinity in the lake and raise water temperatures, decimating fish breeding areas and mature fish populations. Higher air temperatures will increase rates of evaporation, further increasing salinity while reducing biological productivity... which would later on influence the entire ecological system.