PIED STILT now called White-headed Stilt -
Our population of Pied Stilts - status ‘Protected Native’- is thought to have colonised New Zealand as recently as the 1800’s having stable numbers over the past 50 years of around 30,000 due to the clearance and conversion of lowland swamp forest into seasonally wet grasslands. The distinctive features of this black and white wader are a long black fine bill, long pink legs that trail behind in flight and a high pitched yapping call. Over the Winter months they gather together to a popular roosting site in the Wangamata Harbour and the Otahu Estuary south of Wangamata, from the North and South Islands of New Zealand. They lay their nests on gravel riverbeds, on mounds surrounded by water, recently flooded pastures, estua... read moreries and permanent wetlands. They lay up to 4 eggs in shallow depressions lined with grasses and mud. Both adults share incubation duties up to 25 days, when the chicks straight away start to fossick for food. They continue to be brooded by their parents as required. These wading birds live on aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates, worms, crabs, small fish, molluscs and
flying insects on the wing.
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RosinaBloom
(Zone 1) |
March 2013 |
Positive
The White-headed Stilt - which used to be called the Pied Stilt - has greatly increased its range in New Zealand over the last 100 years. It breeds in open swamps, lagoons, riverbeds, estuaries and salt marshes between July and February. It usually lays one clutch of four brown-olive, oval shaped eggs which are heavily marked with brown-black blotches which both parents incubate for 24 to 25 days. The eggs hatch together, and if the weather is fine the chicks leave the nest within a few hours and forage for food together while being guarded by one parent. The chicks fledge at four to five weeks, and the family disbands a few weeks after that. After the breeding season hundreds, if not thousands, flock to the northern harbours. Autumn and winter flocks feed on tidal flats and shallow muddy ... read morelagoons eating mainly water insects and crustaceans.
RosinaBloom
Our population of Pied Stilts - status ‘Protected Native’- is thought to have colonised New Zealand as recently as the 1800’s having stable numbers over the past 50 years of around 30,000 due to the clearance and conversion of lowland swamp forest into seasonally wet grasslands. The distinctive features of this black and white wader are a long black fine bill, long pink legs that trail behind in flight and a high pitched yapping call. Over the Winter months they gather together to a popular roosting site in the Wangamata Harbour and the Otahu Estuary south of Wangamata, from the North and South Islands of New Zealand. They lay their nests on gravel riverbeds, on mounds surrounded by water, recently flooded pastures, estua... read more
RosinaBloom