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Home/Species/ Black-necked Stilt

Himantopus mexicanus

(Müller, 1776)

Black-necked Stilt

G5Secure Found in 31 roadless areas NatureServe Explorer →
G5SecureGlobal Rank
Least concernIUCN
PSESA Status
Identity
Unique IDELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.105198
Element CodeABNND01010
Record TypeSPECIES
ClassificationSpecies
Classification StatusStandard
Name CategoryVertebrate Animal
IUCNLeast concern
Endemicoccurs (regularly, as a native taxon) in multiple nations
KingdomAnimalia
PhylumCraniata
ClassAves
OrderCharadriiformes
FamilyRecurvirostridae
GenusHimantopus
USESAPS
Other Common Names
black-necked stilt (EN) Candelero Americano, Cigüeñela, Tero-Real (ES) Échasse d'Amérique (FR) Pernalonga-Comum (PT)
Concept Reference
American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1998. Check-list of North American birds. Seventh edition. American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C. [as modified by subsequent supplements and corrections published in The Auk]. Also available online: http://www.aou.org/.
Taxonomic Comments
H. m. mexicanus and H. m. knudseni are regarded as distinct species by some authors. H. mexicanus (including knudseni) may be conspecific with the several other nominal Himantopus species, in which case the name would be H. himantopus (Sibley and Monroe 1990).
Conservation Status
Rank MethodExpertise without calculation
Review Date2016-04-08
Change Date1996-11-25
Range Extent>2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles)
Rank Reasons
Globally secure due primarily to large range, but occurrence tends to be much localized; population trends are poorly known for many regions.
Range Extent Comments
Large range but localized. BREEDS: locally on Atlantic coast from mid-Atlantic states south to southern Florida, and from southern Oregon, Idaho, northern Utah, southern Colorado, eastern New Mexico, central Kansas, Gulf Coast of Texas, and southern Louisiana and the Bahamas south through Middle America, Antilles, and most of South America to southern Chile and southern Argentina (AOU 1983); may breed also in eastern Montana and western South Dakota; resident in Hawaii (all main islands except Lanai). Mainly resident south of U.S. Some authors treat populations at the southern end of the range from central to southern South America as a distinct species (H. MELANURUS). NORTHERN WINTER: mostly southern California, southern coastal Texas, and Florida south through breeding range (AOU 1983).
Ecology & Habitat

Description

A tall slender wader with a long straight slender bill, black (male) or brownish (female) upperparts, white underparts, very long red or pink legs and feet, and a white spot above the eye; immatures have buffy edges on the dark feathers of the upperparts.

Diagnostic Characteristics

Unmistakable.

Habitat

Shallow salt or fresh water with soft muddy bottom; grassy marshes, wet savanna, mudflats, shallow ponds, flooded fields, borders of salt ponds and mangrove swamps (Tropical to Temperate zones) (AOU 1983, Raffaele 1983).

Nests along shallow water of ponds, lakes, swamps, or lagoons. May nest on the ground or in shallow water on a plant tussock.

Ecology

Social; usually in loose groups of up to 50 (Costa Rica, Stiles and Skutch 1989).

Reproduction

Both adults, in turn, incubate 4 eggs about 25 days (Terres 1980). Nestlings are precocial. Young are tended by both adults, independent in about 4 weeks (Harrison 1978), first fly at 7-8 weeks (Berger 1981). Nests in small colonies.
Terrestrial Habitats
SavannaGrassland/herbaceousCropland/hedgerow
Palustrine Habitats
HERBACEOUS WETLANDFORESTED WETLANDRiparian
Other Nations (2)
United StatesN5B,N5N
ProvinceRankNative
UtahS3Yes
MinnesotaSNRMYes
WyomingS3BYes
ColoradoS3BYes
GeorgiaS2Yes
KansasS1BYes
VirginiaS1BYes
WisconsinS1BYes
TexasS5BYes
IllinoisS1Yes
ArizonaS2Yes
New MexicoS4B,S4NYes
IdahoS3BYes
LouisianaS3N,S5BYes
DelawareS2BYes
MissouriSNRBYes
MarylandS1BYes
OregonS3Yes
HawaiiS2Yes
AlabamaS3BYes
Navajo NationS3NYes
NevadaS3BYes
ArkansasSNRNYes
CaliforniaSNRBYes
MississippiS1BYes
South DakotaS1BYes
MontanaS3BYes
South CarolinaS3BYes
NebraskaS3Yes
FloridaSNRBYes
North CarolinaS1BYes
WashingtonS3BYes
OhioS4NYes
CanadaN4B
ProvinceRankNative
AlbertaS4BYes
British ColumbiaS1BYes
SaskatchewanSNAYes
Roadless Areas (31)
Arizona (2)
AreaForestAcres
Coconino RimKaibab National Forest7,213
GoldfieldTonto National Forest15,257
California (8)
AreaForestAcres
City CreekSan Bernardino National Forest9,997
Deep CreekSan Bernardino National Forest23,869
LavasModoc National Forest25,864
Malduce BuckhornLos Padres National Forest14,177
Mt. JacksonHumboldt-Toiyabe National Forest20,721
Santa CruzLos Padres National Forest21,182
TequepisLos Padres National Forest9,080
WildhorseCleveland National Forest1,483
Idaho (2)
AreaForestAcres
Bear CreekCaribou-Targhee National Forest118,582
HoodooNez Perce-Clearwater National Forest153,868
Montana (4)
AreaForestAcres
Bear - Marshall - Scapegoat - SwanLewis and Clark National Forest344,022
Bear - Marshall - Scapegoat - SwanLolo National Forest118,485
Freezeout MountainBeaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest97,305
Selway - Bitterroot (01067)Bitterroot National Forest114,953
Nevada (5)
AreaForestAcres
Bald Mtn.Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest41,598
Four MileHumboldt-Toiyabe National Forest24,093
Pearl PeakHumboldt-Toiyabe National Forest71,405
ShellbackHumboldt-Toiyabe National Forest36,455
Table Mtn. - EastHumboldt-Toiyabe National Forest87,789
Oregon (4)
AreaForestAcres
Crane MountainFremont National Forest23,096
HellholeUmatilla National Forest65,679
MarshWinema National Forest1,226
Sky Lakes AWinema National Forest3,940
South Dakota (1)
AreaForestAcres
Indian CreekBuffalo Gap National Grassland24,666
Texas (1)
AreaForestAcres
Big CreekNational Forests in Texas1,447
Utah (4)
AreaForestAcres
Cedar BenchDixie National Forest8,915
Lava BedsDixie National Forest14,944
Stoddard MountainDixie National Forest13,165
WellsvilleWasatch-Cache National Forest1,717
References (31)
  1. American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1983. Check-list of North American Birds, 6th edition. Allen Press, Inc., Lawrence, Kansas. 877 pp.
  2. American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1998. Check-list of North American birds. Seventh edition. American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C. [as modified by subsequent supplements and corrections published in <i>The Auk</i>]. Also available online: http://www.aou.org/.
  3. Berger, A. J. 1981. Hawaiian Birdlife. Second Edition. University Press of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii. xv + 260 pp.
  4. BirdLife International. 2004b. Threatened birds of the world 2004. CD ROM. BirdLife International, Cambridge, UK.
  5. Braun, M. J., D. W. Finch, M. B. Robbins, and B. K. Schmidt. 2000. A field checklist of the birds of Guyana. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
  6. Castro, I. and A. Phillips. 1996. A guide to the birds of the Galapagos Islands. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
  7. Harrison, C. 1978. A Field Guide to the Nests, Eggs and Nestlings of North American Birds. Collins, Cleveland, Ohio.
  8. Howell, S. N. G., and S. Webb. 1995. A guide to the birds of Mexico and northern Central America. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
  9. Jehl, J. R., Jr. 1973. Breeding biology and systematic relationships of the stilt sandpiper. Wilson Bulletin 85:115-147.
  10. Knopf, F.L. 1996. Mountain Plover (<i>Charadrius montanus</i>). In A. Poole and F. Gill, editors. The Birds of North America, No. 211. The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, DC. 16 pp.
  11. Knopf, F.L., and J.R. Rupert. 1996. Productivity and movements of mountain plovers breeding in Colorado. Wilson Bulletin 108:28-35.
  12. Morrison, R.I.G. 1993/1994. Shorebird population status and trends in Canada. Bird Trends (3):3-5. Canadian Wildlife Service.
  13. Morrison, R. I. G., R. E. Gill, Jr., B. A. Harrington, S. Skagen, G. W. Page, C. L. Gratto-Trevor, and S. M. Haig. 2001. Estimates of shorebird populations in North America. Occasional Paper Number 104, Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada, Ottawa, ON. 64 pages.
  14. Nol, E., and M. S. Blanken. 1999. Semipalmated Plover (<i>Charadrius semipalmatus</i>). No. 444 IN A. Poole and F. Gill, eds. The birds of North America. The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA. 24pp.
  15. Oberholser, H.C. 1974. The bird life of Texas. 2 vols. Univ. of Texas Press, Austin.
  16. Parker III, T. A., D. F. Stotz, and J. W. Fitzpatrick. 1996. Ecological and distributional databases for neotropical birds. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
  17. Peterson, R.T. 1980b. A field guide to the birds of eastern and central North America. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston.
  18. Peterson, R.T. 1990b. A field guide to western birds. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston.
  19. Poole, A. F. and F. B. Gill. 1992. The birds of North America. The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C. and The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA.
  20. Raffaele, H. A. 1983a. A guide to the birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Fondo Educativo Interamericano, San Juan, Puerto Rico. 255 pp.
  21. Raffaele, H., J. Wiley, O. Garrido, A. Keith, and J. Raffaele. 1998. A guide to the birds of the West Indies. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. 511 pp.
  22. Rappole, J.H., Morton, E.S., Lovejoy, T.E. and Ruos, J.L. 1983. Nearctic avian migrants in the Neotropics. U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service and World Wildlife Fund, Washington D.C.
  23. Ridgely, R. S. 2002. Distribution maps of South American birds. Unpublished.
  24. Ridgely, R. S. and J. A. Gwynne, Jr. 1989. A Guide to the Birds of Panama. 2nd edition. Princeton University Press, Princeton, USA.
  25. Ridgely, R. S. and P. J. Greenfield. 2001. The birds of Ecuador: Status, distribution, and taxonomy. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, USA.
  26. Rubega, M. A., D. Schamel, and D. M. Tracy. 2000. Red-necked Phalarope (<i>Phalaropus lobatus</i>). No. 538 IN A. Poole and F. Gill, editors, The birds of North America. The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA. 28pp.
  27. Sibley, C.G., and B.L. Monroe, Jr. 1990. Distribution and Taxonomy of Birds of the World. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT. xxiv + 1111 pp.
  28. Sibley, D. A. 2000a. The Sibley guide to birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
  29. Stiles, F. G. and A. F. Skutch. 1989. A guide to the birds of Costa Rica. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, USA. 511 pp.
  30. Terres, J. K. 1980. The Audubon Society encyclopedia of North American birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
  31. Zook, J. L. 2002. Distribution maps of the birds of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. Unpublished.