In a rare phenomenon, a black-winged stilt’s nesting was spotted at a remote locality in Kanniyakumari. It was witnessed by conservation educator and IUCM member Davidson Sargunam at a wetland in the district. The ground nesting birds are vulnerable to attacks even from domestic dogs and cats.
A black-winged stilt in a mud flat nest
Madurai:
The nest site is a bare spot on the ground in islets near water. These birds often nest in small groups, sometimes with avocets.
It is a widely distributed, very long-legged wader in the stilt family. The adult black-winged stilt are 13 to 14 inches in length, with long pink legs, long and thin black bill. They are blackish above and white below, white head and neck with a varying amount of black. While males have black back, often with greenish gloss, the backs of females have a brown hue, he said on Sunday.
These birds mainly feed on insects and crustaceans, said Davidson, adding that it lays about three to four brown spotted eggs. The eggs are prone to many risks as they are laid on the ground.
The bird nests in colonies and never in single. Nests are slight depressions lined with grass and twigs located from 7 to 130 feet apart, on mud flat close to water edges.
“The black-winged stilts raise an alarm and launch a combined chase in case of any attack on the nest from carnivores and birds like crows, kites,” he explained.
After Cyclone Ockhi in 2017, the birds nesting in Kanniyakumari’s Manakudi, Suchindram and Theroor estuaries dropped drastically from 10,000 to 4,000 and 2,500 in subsequent years of bird count, said Davidson. The activists are worried about rampant habitat destruction which would decimate the bird species.