Pied stilt
Himantopus leucocephalus Gould, 1837
Status not recordedbirds
The pied stilt (Himantopus leucocephalus) is a species in the family Recurvirostridae, order Charadriiformes. Recorded adults weigh 161 g to 174.5 g and live up to 10.2 years. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia.
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Quick facts about the pied stilt
- Weight
- 161 g – 174.5 g
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- 10.2 years
- Longest recorded lifespan
- 12.2 years
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- Not recorded
- Egg incubation
- 23.8 days
- Young per litter or clutch
- 3.96
- Age at maturity
- 23.9 months
- Litters or clutches a year
- 1
- Conservation status
- Not recorded
- Countries on record
- 1 countrysrc for Countries on record
Where does the pied 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 pied stilt is listed for 1 country.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Is the pied stilt endangered?
No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.
How is the pied stilt classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classAves
- orderCharadriiformes
- familyRecurvirostridae
- genusHimantopus
- SpeciesHimantopus leucocephalus Gould, 1837
Synonyms Cladorhynchus leucocephalus, Himantopus himantopus leucocephalus, Hypsibates leucocephalus assimilis, Hypsibates leucocephalus timorensis
Other names and names in other languages (47)
- Australasian black-winged stiltEnglish
- Australian black-winged stiltEnglish
- Black-naped stiltEnglish
- White-headed stiltEnglish
- كرسوع أبقعArabic
- Skaseg penn gwennBreton
- pisila bělohlaváCzech
- hirgoes AwstraliaWelsh
- Australsk StylteløberDanish
- WeißgesichtstelzenläuferGerman
- aŭstralia himantopodoEsperanto
- Cigüeñuela PechirrojaSpanish
- kaelus-karkjalgEstonian
- چوبپای سرسفیدPersian
- australianpitkäjalkaFinnish
- Échasse d'AustralieFrench
- australska vlastelicaCroatian
- fehérfejű gólyatöcsHungarian
- Gagang-bayang belangIndonesian
- Cavaliere testabiancaItalian
- オーストラリアセイタカシギJapanese
- australinis kojūkasLithuanian
- PoakaMāori
- Australische SteltkluutDutch
- AustralstylteløparNorwegian Nynorsk
- australstylteløperNorwegian
- szczudłak białogłowyPolish
- pernilongo-de-nuca-pretaPortuguese
- Белоголовый ходулочникRussian
- šišila bielohlaváSlovak
- Beloglava vlastelicaSerbian
- australisk styltlöpareSwedish
- Ak Başlı UzunbacakTurkish
- кулик-довгоніг строкатийUkrainian
- 澳洲长脚鹬Chinese
- كرسوع أبيض الرأسArabic
- كرسوع أسود القفاArabic
- Weißgesicht-StelzenläuferGerman
- Cigueñuela AustralianaSpanish
- Cigüeñuela australianaSpanish
- Échasse d’AustralieFrench
- Gagang-Bayam TimurIndonesian
- Turituri pourewaMāori
- pernilongo-australasiáticoPortuguese
- Австралийский ходулочникRussian
- 白頭高蹺鴴Chinese
- 黑領高蹺鴴Chinese
Relatives of the pied stilt
Other species in the same genus Himantopus.

Black-winged stilt
Himantopus himantopus

Black stilt
Himantopus novaezelandiae
Ae'o
Himantopus mexicanus
White-backed stilt
Himantopus melanurus
ComparePied stilt vs Black-winged stiltPied stilt vs Black stiltPied stilt vs Ae'oPied stilt vs White-backed stilt
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the pied stilt?
An adult pied stilt weighs 161 g – 174.5 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
Where does the pied stilt live?
Catalogue of Life checklists list the pied stilt for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.
How long does the pied stilt live?
The pied stilt has a recorded lifespan of 10.2 years.
What kind of animal is the pied stilt?
The pied stilt (Himantopus leucocephalus) 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.
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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 - AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits · CC BY 4.0 · v1
Oliveira, B.F., São-Pedro, V.A., Santos-Barrera, G., Penone, C. & Costa, G.C. (2017) AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits. Scientific Data 4: 170123. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.123. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4644424.v5 - 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). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Shirey, V., Larsen, E., Doherty, A. et al. (2022) LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits. Scientific Data 9: 382. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01473-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19874602.v1 - Northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits (raw datasets) · CC BY 4.0 · 2024-12-17
Logghe, G., Batsleer, F., Maes, D. et al. (2025) An in-depth dataset of northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits. Biodiversity Data Journal 13: e146785. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e146785. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13379714 - ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles · CC BY 4.0 · v1-2
Oskyrko, O., Mi, C., Meiri, S. et al. (2024) ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data 11: 243. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03079-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24572683.v4 - Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits · CC BY 4.0 · 1.0-2022-06-17
Mull, C.G., Pacoureau, N., Pardo, S.A. et al. (2022) Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits and abundance time-series. Scientific Data 9: 559. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01655-1. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6656525 - SquamBase 1.0 - a dataset of squamate species traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0-dryad-v5
Meiri, S. (2024) SquamBase - a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography 33(4): e13812. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13812. Data: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.76hdr7t3b - TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe · CC BY 4.0 · 2.0
Chauvier, Y., Adde, A., Bergamini, A. et al. (2025) TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15063844 - 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). Pied stilt (Himantopus leucocephalus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/pied-stilt
“Pied stilt (Himantopus leucocephalus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/pied-stilt.
@misc{pied_stilt_2026,
title = {Pied stilt (Himantopus leucocephalus)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/pied-stilt},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}