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Black-winged Stilt

Himantopus himantopus

Description:

Adults are 33–36 cm long. They have long pink legs, a long thin black bill and are blackish above and white below, with a white head and neck with a varying amount of black. Males have a black back, often with greenish gloss. Females' backs have a brown hue, contrasting with the black remiges. In the populations that have the top of the head normally white at least in winter, females tend to have less black on head and neck all year round, while males often have much black, particularly in summer. This difference is not clear-cut, however, and males usually get all-white heads in winter. Immature birds are grey instead of black and have a markedly sandy hue on the wings, with light feather fringes appearing as a whitish line in flight. These birds pick up their food from sand or water. They mainly eat insects and crustaceans. The nest site is a bare spot on the ground near water. These birds often nest in small groups, sometimes with avocets.

Habitat:

The breeding habitat of all these stilts is marshes, shallow lakes and ponds. Some populations are migratory and move to the ocean coasts in winter; those in warmer regions are generally resident or short-range vagrants. In Europe, the Black-winged Stilt is a regular spring overshoot vagrant north of its normal range, occasionally remaining to breed in northern European countries

Notes:

today we've mark the little chickens

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3 Comments

PatriciaPi
PatriciaPi 10 years ago

jajaja, si verdad? quería llevarlos a casa para ponerlos en un jarrón pero me contuve! :)

The MnMs
The MnMs 10 years ago

Patricia: que manojo de pollos mas bonito :-)

Hi Patricia and thanks for posting this. It would appear that you are working for or with a conservation group of some sort. Perhaps you would consider sharing this information with the community by writing a blog for us, we are always on the look-out for interesting articles from members of our community. If you agree please feel free to contact karen@projectnoah.org for more information.

PatriciaPi
Spotted by
PatriciaPi

Calpe/Calp, Comunitat Valenciana, Spain

Spotted on Jun 20, 2013
Submitted on Jun 20, 2013

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