Family RECURVIROSTRIDAE Bonaparte, 1831

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Introduction

Members of the family Recurvirostridae are medium-sized stilts and avocets. The family is cosmopolitan, except for Antarctica, and comprises three genera, and seven species. The monotypic genus Cladorhynchus is an Australian endemic. Two of the seven species in this genus are also Australian; a third is shared with New Guinea and south-west Pacific islands. On a world scale there are eleven ultrataxa, three of which occur on the Australian continent. They are distinguished as a family by their slender but long legs, black long pointed bills (straight in stilts and upturned in avocets). Their toes are either fully or partly palmate. Body colours are a white base with either black evident on the wings and head or rich reddish browns on the head or chest. Strong plumage variations are evident between the young and adults. Leg colours vary from strong pinks in the Pied Stilt Himantopus himantopus, to yellowish orange in the Banded Stilt C. leucocephalus, and pale grey for the Red-necked Avocet Recurvirostra novaehollandiae.

The irregular nomadic movements of birds of this family tend to follow trends in water distribution, although populations remain resident should water supply remain constant. Although capable of swimming they tend congregate to feed at the water's edge. Many are found alone, however there is a tendency to form large flocks, and small family groups are not unknown. The gregarious associations constantly communicate using a series of high pitched piping notes.

Aggregations gather in fresh, brackish and saltwater situations, especially those with large open mudflats. The birds feed by wading through shallow water, probing or snatching small marine invertebrates and small fish; on surrounding dry land they collect small terrestrial invertebrates and occasionally seeds and other vegetable matter.

Nesting is highly social, and colonial nest sites occur regularly for both the Pied Stilt and the Red-necked Avocet. Considered the most gregarious of the three regarding nesting, the Banded Stilt is unique. By nature their breeding is adapted to parallel the filling of inland salt lakes by infrequent rains. In these temporary lakes, abnormally high eruptions of brine shrimp provide a stable food resource enabling successful breeding by the stilt. All species construct circular mud nests on the flat waters edge; many are unlined others are lined with dried grasses. Eggs usually number between three and four per clutch. For the Pied Stilt and avocet the eggs are short pyriform or short oval shaped. Their base colour is an ochre-green and they are heavily marked by darker spots and dots. Banded Stilts differ by being larger sized and having a white base; they are thinly scrawled by dark grey and black. The young are precocial, nidifugous and ptilopaedic.

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