Black-winged stilt
Himantopus himantopus (Linnaeus, 1758)
The black-winged stilt (Himantopus himantopus) is a bird in the family Recurvirostridae and the order Charadriiformes. It is a small, partially migratory, terrestrial-foraging aquatic predator of wetland habitats, with an adult body mass of 176.8 g.
Quick facts about the black-winged stilt
It lays one clutch of 4 eggs per year, incubates them for 24 days and reaches sexual maturity at 2 years. The IUCN lists it as Least Concern, which is not a threatened category, and checklists record it in Australia.
- Weight
- 160 g – 176.8 gsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- 10.2 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Aquatic predatorsrc for Diet
- Longest recorded lifespan
- 12.2 years
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- wetlandsrc for Habitat
- Egg incubation
- 23.8 dayssrc for Egg incubation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 3.96src 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
- Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- 1 countrysrc for Countries on record
Photos of the black-winged stilt
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
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1 more photo exists under a licence we cannot display: view at source.
Where does the black-winged 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-winged stilt is listed for 1 country.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Why a country list is not a range map
Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.
What is 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.
From the Wikipedia article “Black-winged stilt” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Black-winged_stilt&oldid=1354819259), 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.
What does the black-winged stilt sound like?
Is the black-winged stilt endangered?
The black-winged stilt is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.
- 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 Least Concern species. What the categories mean.
How is the black-winged stilt classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classAves
- orderCharadriiformes
- familyRecurvirostridae
- genusHimantopus
- SpeciesHimantopus himantopus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms Charadrius himantopus, Himantopus atropterus, Himantopus candidus, Himantopus himantopus himantopus, Himantopus melanopterus, Himantopus rubropterus, Himantopus vulgaris
Other names and names in other languages (118)
- African/Eurasian black-winged stiltEnglish
- Common stiltEnglish
- RooipootelsieAfrikaans
- الكرسوعArabic
- أبو المغازلArabic
- كرسوع أبو المغازلArabic
- كرسوع أسود الجناحينArabic
- SartaneroAragonese
- CigoñinaAsturian
- cigüeñinaAsturian
- Çaydaq cüllütüAzerbaijani
- Оҙонаяҡ сәпсәүBashkir
- ХадулачнікBelarusian
- ХадулачнiкBelarusian
- КокилобегачBulgarian
- Skaseg kof gwennBreton
- AvisadorCatalan
- CamallargaCatalan
- cames llarguesCatalan
- pisila čáponoháCzech
- pisila čáponohá eurasijskáCzech
- hirgoesWelsh
- Cwtyn HirgoesWelsh
- hirgoes adeindduWelsh
- HirgoesauWelsh
- stylteløberDanish
- StelzenläuferGerman
- ތޭރަވާ އިލޮޅިDivehi
- ΚαλαμοκανάςGreek
- ΚαλαμοκαννάςGreek
- Komuna himantopoEsperanto
- ordinara himantopodoEsperanto
- Cigüeñuela comúnSpanish
- karkjalgEstonian
- چوب پاPersian
- pitkäjalkaFinnish
- echasse blancheFrench
- Échasse blancheFrench
- SteltgrilWestern Frisian
- SteltklútWestern Frisian
- Scodlach dubheiteachIrish
- scodalach dubheiteachIrish
- LuigneachScottish Gaelic
- Fad-chasachScottish Gaelic
- PernalongaGalician
- LurgaghManx
- ગજપાઉંGujarati
- תמירוןHebrew
- Pavazha kaal ullanHindi
- Crvenonoga vlastelicaCroatian
- gólyatöcsHungarian
- ՈտնացուպիկArmenian
- Burung Gagang-bayang BelangIndonesian
- Gagang-Bayam BelangIndonesian
- HáleggurIcelandic
- cavaliere d'ItaliaItalian
- セイタカシギJapanese
- 背高鷸Japanese
- ოჩოფეხაGeorgian
- БзулъэкӀыхьKabardian
- Ұзынсирақ балшықшыKazakh
- Қызылсирақ балшықшыKazakh
- ನೀರುಗೊರವKannada
- 장다리물떼새Korean
- Cornhwylen carrekCornish
- kojūkasLithuanian
- baltasparnis kojūkasLithuanian
- garstilbisLatvian
- TakapalyMalagasy
- PoakaMāori
- долгоног пескарMacedonian
- പവിഴക്കാലിMalayalam
- Fras-servjentMaltese
- Хилэн жигүүрт / ᠡᠭᠡᠯ ᠬᠢᠯᠢᠩ ᠵᠢᠭᠦᠷᠲᠦMongolian
- शेकाटयाMarathi
- Burung Kedidi Kaki PanjangMalay
- steltkluutDutch
- stylteløparNorwegian Nynorsk
- stylteløperNorwegian
- GambadePicard
- szczudłak zwyczajnyPolish
- SzczudłakPolish
- szczudłak (zwyczajny)Polish
- کالے پراں آلا سٹلٹWestern Panjabi
- pernilongoPortuguese
- pernilongo-comumPortuguese
- Gambun pitschenRomansh
- piciorongRomanian
- ходулочникRussian
- GuhkesjuolgiNorthern Sami
- šišila bocianovitáSlovak
- Šišila bocianovítáSlovak
- polojnikSlovenian
- kalorësiAlbanian
- fisnikorja këmbëkuqeAlbanian
- VlastelicaSerbian
- ВластелицаSerbian
- Vlastelica / ВластелицаSerbian
- ZurruleuSardinian
- styltlöpareSwedish
- Msese MilonjoSwahili
- பவளக்கால் உள்ளான்Tamil
- நெடுங்கால் உள்ளான்Tamil
- นกตีนเทียนThai
- uzunbacakTurkish
- Bayağı UzunbacakTurkish
- Шывар-даяктыг кушTuvinian
- ДовгонігUkrainian
- ХодуличникUkrainian
- Кулик-довгонігUkrainian
- кулик-довгоніг чорнокрилийUkrainian
- GanbetonVenetian
- רױטפֿיסיקער שטעלצנלױפֿערYiddish
- 長腳鷸Chinese
- 高蹺鴴Chinese
- 高蹺鴴〔黑翅長腳鷸〕Chinese
- 黑翅長腳鷸Chinese
- 黑翅长脚鹬Chinese
Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List
Relatives of the black-winged stilt
Other species in the same genus Himantopus.
Black stilt
Himantopus novaezelandiae
Ae'o
Himantopus mexicanus
Pied stilt
Himantopus leucocephalus
White-backed stilt
Himantopus melanurus
CompareBlack-winged stilt vs Black stiltBlack-winged stilt vs Ae'oBlack-winged stilt vs Pied stiltBlack-winged stilt vs White-backed stilt
Common questions
Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.
What kind of animal is the black-winged stilt?
The black-winged stilt is a bird in the family Recurvirostridae, order Charadriiformes.
How heavy is the black-winged stilt?
The black-winged stilt has an adult body mass of 176.8 g, which places it in the small size class.
What does the black-winged stilt eat?
The black-winged stilt is an aquatic predator and a carnivore.
Is the black-winged stilt endangered?
No. The IUCN lists the black-winged stilt as Least Concern, which is not a threatened category.
How long does the black-winged stilt live?
The black-winged stilt has a lifespan of 10.22 years, with values up to 12.17 years reported.
How many eggs does the black-winged stilt lay?
The black-winged stilt lays 4 eggs per clutch and one clutch per year, with an incubation period of 24 days.
Which countries is the black-winged stilt recorded in?
Checklists record the black-winged stilt in Australia.
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-winged stilt (Himantopus himantopus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/black-winged-stilt
“Black-winged stilt (Himantopus himantopus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/black-winged-stilt.
@misc{black_winged_stilt_2026,
title = {Black-winged stilt (Himantopus himantopus)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/black-winged-stilt},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}