Black-winged Stilt
Himantopus himantopus
Silhouette: Edwin Price · PhyloPic
- KingdomAnimalia (Animals)
- PhylumChordata (Chordates)
- ClassAves (Birds)
- OrderCharadriiformes (Shorebirds and Allies)
- FamilyRecurvirostridae (Stilts and Avocets)
- GenusHimantopus (Typical Stilts)
- SpeciesHimantopus himantopus (Black-winged Stilt)
About the Black-winged Stilt
The black-winged stilt (Himantopus himantopus) is a widely distributed, very long-legged wader in the avocet and stilt family Recurvirostridae. Its scientific name, Himantopus himantopus, is sometimes used to generalize a single, almost cosmopolitan species. Alternatively, it is restricted to the form that is widespread in Europe, Asia and Africa, which equals the nominate group of H. himantopus sensu lato. Meanwhile, the black-necked (H. mexicanus) and white-backed stilts (H. melanurus) both inhabit the Americas; the pied stilt (H. leucocephalus) ranges from Australia and New Zealand. Today, most sources accept between one and four actual species.
The black-winged stilt was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the plovers in the genus Charadrius and coined the binomial name Charadrius himantopus. He specified the type locality as southern Europe. The taxonomic name Himantopus comes from Greek, meaning "strap-foot" or "thong-foot". The black-winged stilt is now one of five species placed in the genus Himantopus that was introduced by the French naturalist Mathurin Jacques Brisson... Wikipedia →
Recent sightings of Black-winged Stilt in Cévennes National Park
LIVEiNaturalistClosest Relatives at Cévennes National Park
Pied Avocet
Recurvirostra avosetta
Eurasian Stone-curlew
Burhinus oedicnemus
Yellow-legged Gull
Larus michahellis
Black-bellied Plover
Pluvialis squatarola
Common Greenshank
Tringa nebularia
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Larus fuscus
Jack Snipe
Lymnocryptes minimus
Eurasian Dotterel
Charadrius morinellus
Common Sandpiper
Actitis hypoleucos
Green Sandpiper
Tringa ochropus
Black-headed Gull
Chroicocephalus ridibundus
Wood Sandpiper
Tringa glareola
Global Distribution
Warmer areas are where this animal is recorded most often.