The black-winged
stilt is a widely distributed very long-legged wader in
the avocet and stilt family. The scientific name H.
himantopus was formerly applied to a single, almost cosmopolitan species.
It is now normally applied to the form that is widespread in Eurasia and Africa
and which was formerly regarded as the nominate subspecies of Himantopus
himantopus sensu lato. The scientific name Himantopus comes from
the Greek meaning "strap foot" or "thong foot". Most
sources today accept 2–4 species. It is sometimes called pied stilt, but that
name is now reserved for the Australian species, Himantopus
leucocephalus.
Adults are 33–36 cm (13–14 in) 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. 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. Pairs
have successfully bred in Britain in 1987, and after a 27-year hiatus, two
instances of successful breeding in Southern England in 2014. 13 young were
fledged in southern England in 2017.
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.