Posts Tagged "waterbirds"

Precious Black Necked Stilt

Posted by Pat Stewart on Sep 18, 2015 in Birds, My Blog | 0 comments

One of my favorite little waders is the Black Necked Stilt. We see them in our South Florida wetlands on the east coast during the breeding season in late spring and early summer. They have the longest red legs on any bird in relation to their the body size, second only to the flamingo.  These dainty-looking birds like to build their nests in a clump of soil and vegetation right in the wetlands water which makes we admiring fans quite nervous because of alligators.  But alligators, beware, because these lightweight parents carry heavyweight courage and vigor in protecting their clutch. I’ve seen them fly out to harass a gator moving too close to another bird’s nest. These pretty and tall parents alternate turns at rolling the eggs to assure each egg has full exposure to their body heat.  Once the chicks are hatched, both parents feed and teach the chicks up through the time they fledge the nest.  They are seen hanging out at their empty nests for a while just to make certain the  fledglings are succeeding on their own. The Black Necked Stilts are quite territorial and in non-breeding times seem to enjoy associating with other stilts....