Black-winged Stilt

Unrecognizable waterfowl bird with very high rosy legs, white body and black wings. In males the black of the back (closed wings) is bright, sometimes with metallic green tints, while in females it looks faded and sometimes (at close range) appears brown. Characteristic all-black, thin and straight beak. When flying its legs protrude very characteristically, backwards.

It is a summer visitor to Europe and distributes mainly in the southern parts of Europe, north of the Black Sea, in the Middle East and South Asia. In winter it migrates to sub-Saharan Africa.

It lives in wetlands with shallow water, preferably fresh (marshes, lakeshores, flood plains), but also in salt marshes and coastal salt marshes.

In Lesvos it breeds exclusively in the area of Kalloni Gulf, in the two salt pans (Kalloni and Polychnitos), in the wetland of Messos, the Nine Kamares and in some years in the marshes of Nifida and Parakila. Dozens of birds migrating to other areas also pass through the island.

• It feeds on a wide variety of aquatic organisms, mainly insects and their larvae (beetles, beetles, mosquitoes, etc.), small shells, shrimps and crabs, small fish and their eggs.
• It nests on islands found in wetlands but sometimes, in the absence of islands, on the banks of wetlands with shallow water (peripheral ditch of salt marshes). It breeds on Lesvos from mid-April in nest colonies of 2-5 nests in the same area.
• It usually lays up to 4 eggs that hatch in 22-29 days from both parents.
• Often nests on the same islands as Pied avocet and spoonbills and warblers.
• Comparatively, for its body size, it is the bird with the tallest legs in the world!
• Very "talkative" during the breeding season, especially if a potential predator (even a human) gets close to its nest.
• Very often the wetlands it chooses to nest in are drained and the islands on which the nest is located are accessed from the land. So the nests fail...
• They are one of the first waterfowl bird species to arrive on Lesvos every spring!