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.

• 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.