Unusual pied stilt at Opihi river mouth - South Canterbury

Bird sighting information. Use this forum to report bird sightings (especially rare and unusual birds), census and field count results, and trip reports. Messages posted to this forum will also be sent as a plain text email to the BIRDING-NZ newsgroup.
Post Reply Previous topicNext topic
GrantD
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Aug 15, 2015 10:18 am

Unusual pied stilt at Opihi river mouth - South Canterbury

Postby GrantD » Thu Jan 02, 2020 8:45 am

The attached bird was seen on 29 December where the road goes down to the estuary from Milford huts. It was quite small, so presumably a juvenile. It didn't seem to be appreciated by the adult in the photo, there was a bit of aggro going on.
IMG_6009.jpg
Stilts at Opihi mouth
IMG_6009.jpg (953.79 KiB) Viewed 1357 times
IMG_6012.jpg
Stilts at Opihi mouth
IMG_6012.jpg (1021.53 KiB) Viewed 1357 times
Top
Jan
Posts: 1888
Joined: Fri Jul 03, 2009 10:43 am
Location: Christchurch

Re: Unusual pied stilt at Opihi river mouth - South Canterbury

Postby Jan » Thu Jan 02, 2020 9:54 am

That looks like a leucistic adult Pied Stilt as if the brown areas were black as in the other bird, it would have complete adult plumage. Young ones don't have as much colour up the back of the neck and on the head. Leucistic is where the genes for dark colours are muted, not completely removed as in albinism.
Top
Post Reply Previous topicNext topic

Return to “Bird Sightings and Alerts”