Banded Stilt (6/19)

CHARADRIIFORMES: Recurvirostridae

Cladorhynchus leucocephalus  

Adult Banded Stilts have a rich chestnut band around the chest.

An Australian endemic, the Banded Stilt is the only wader in the world that nests in huge closely packed colonies. The density of nesting has been recorded at ten nests per square metre of ground.

It breeds on the shores of inland salt lakes when flood rains provide the right conditions. During prolonged dry spells it may go years without breeding at all.

The remote and isolated nature of the breeding locations resulted in nothing being known about the breeding habits of the Banded Stilt for a hundred years after the bird was first identified.

The first photographs of Banded Stilts at nest were taken by Clive Minton in 1989 at Lake Torrens in South Australia.

*Waders: The Shorebirds of Australia, David Hollands and Clive Minton, 2012, p80-83.