Black-necked Stilt

Himantopus mexicanus

Black-necked stilts are found in fresh and salt water marshes, mudflats, wet savannas, pools, grassy marshes and flooded fields.  They are very widespread, found through the southern and western United States and into Florida and other Gulf coast states, northern South America, the West Indies and the Galapagos Islands.  Their breeding range extends as far north as Oregon and Delaware along the coasts and inland as far as Idaho, Texas and Kansas.  They feed on tadpoles, mollusks, water beetles and other aquatic insects, snails, small fish, flying insects and seeds of aquatic and marsh plants.  Their long slender beaks are used to probe for food in the mud.  They are excellent swimmers and strong fliers.

Black-necked stilts are small (13-16 inches) wading birds with long, red, stiltlike legs.  They probe in mud with slender bills for food and build their nests on marshy ground in salt marshes, shallow coastal bays and freshwater marshes.  They lay 3-4 buff-colored eggs, spotted with brown, in a shallow depression lined with grass or shell fragments.  The voice is a sharp kip-kip-kip-kip.