Black stilt
Himantopus novaezelandiae Gould, 1841
The black stilt (Himantopus novaezelandiae) is a species in the family Recurvirostridae, order Charadriiformes. Recorded adults weigh 161 g to 223 g and live up to 10.2 years. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Critically Endangered.
Quick facts about the black stilt
- Weight
- 161 g – 223 gsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- 10.2 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Aquatic predatorsrc for Diet
- Longest recorded lifespan
- 19 years
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- wetlandsrc for Habitat
- Egg incubation
- 23.8 dayssrc for Egg incubation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 4src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 23.9 monthssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 1src for Litters or clutches a year
- Lifestyle
- Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
- Migration
- Partialsrc for Migration
- Conservation status
- Critically Endangered (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- 1 countrysrc for Countries on record
Where does the black stilt live?
Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.
The black stilt is listed for 1 country.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.
What is the black stilt?
The black stilt or kakī (Māori), (Himantopus novaezelandiae) is a wading bird found in New Zealand. It is one of the world's rarest birds, with 169 adults surviving in the wild as of May 2020. Adult kakī have distinctive black plumage, long pink legs, and a long thin black bill. Black stilts largely breed in the Mackenzie Basin in the South Island, and are threatened by introduced feral cats, ferrets, and hedgehogs as well as habitat degradation from hydroelectric dams, agriculture, and invasive weeds.
From the Wikipedia article “Black stilt” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Black_stilt&oldid=1332686718), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
Is the black stilt endangered?
The black stilt is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List: it faces an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Critically Endangered species.
How is the black stilt classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classAves
- orderCharadriiformes
- familyRecurvirostridae
- genusHimantopus
- SpeciesHimantopus novaezelandiae Gould, 1841
Synonyms Himantopus himantopus novae-zelandiae, Himantopus novaezealandiae
Other names and names in other languages (44)
- كرسوع أسودArabic
- كرسوع نيوزيلنديArabic
- Skaseg duBreton
- camallarga negreCatalan
- pisila černáCzech
- hirgoes Seland NewyddWelsh
- Sort StylteløberDanish
- RußstelzenläuferGerman
- Schwarzer StelzenläuferGerman
- Μαύρος καλαμοκανάςGreek
- Nigra himantopoEsperanto
- nigra himantopodoEsperanto
- Cigueñuela NegraSpanish
- Cigüeñuela negraSpanish
- must-karkjalgEstonian
- چوبپای سیاهPersian
- mustapitkäjalkaFinnish
- Échasse noireFrench
- Swarte steltklútWestern Frisian
- fekete gólyatöcsHungarian
- Cavaliere neroItalian
- クロセイタカシギJapanese
- Naujosios Zelandijos kojūkasLithuanian
- Melnais garstilbisLatvian
- KakīMāori
- KākiMāori
- Łeesdísí Bikéyahdę́ę́ʼ jáádtsʼósíNavajo
- Zwarte SteltkluutDutch
- SvartstylteløparNorwegian Nynorsk
- svartstylteløperNorwegian
- szczudłak czarnyPolish
- pernilongo-pretoPortuguese
- pernilongo-da-nova-zelândiaPortuguese
- Чёрный ходулочникRussian
- Новозеландский ходулочникRussian
- šišila smútočnáSlovak
- Crna vlastelicaSerbian
- svart styltlöpareSwedish
- Kara UzunbacakTurkish
- кулик-довгоніг чорнийUkrainian
- Cà kheo đenVietnamese
- 黑長腳鷸Chinese
- 黑长脚鹬Chinese
- 黑高蹺鴴Chinese
Relatives of the black stilt
Other species in the same genus Himantopus.
Black-winged stilt
Himantopus himantopus
Ae'o
Himantopus mexicanus
Pied stilt
Himantopus leucocephalus
White-backed stilt
Himantopus melanurus
CompareBlack stilt vs Black-winged stiltBlack stilt vs Ae'oBlack stilt vs Pied stiltBlack stilt vs White-backed stilt
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the black stilt?
An adult black stilt weighs 161 g – 223 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
Where does the black stilt live?
Catalogue of Life checklists list the black stilt for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.
Is the black stilt endangered?
The black stilt is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, meaning it faces an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.
How long does the black stilt live?
The black stilt has a recorded lifespan of 10.2 years.
What kind of animal is the black stilt?
The black stilt (Himantopus novaezelandiae) belongs to the family Recurvirostridae in the order Charadriiformes.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Black stilt (Himantopus novaezelandiae). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/black-stilt
“Black stilt (Himantopus novaezelandiae).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/black-stilt.
@misc{black_stilt_2026,
title = {Black stilt (Himantopus novaezelandiae)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/black-stilt},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}