English

Banded stilts

Noun

banded stilt ‎(plural banded stilts)

1. Cladorhynchus leucocephalus, a nomadic stilt endemic to Australia.
   • 1999, Alan Feduccia, The Origin and Evolution of Birds, page 199,

     The life history of flamingos and the banded stilt of Australia are astonishingly alike. Like flamingos, banded stilts are colonial, breed in great, densely packed colonies, nest in depressions in the ground and are regularly spaced about 30 centimeters (12 in.) apart, have white, unpatterned downy young with two coats of nestling down (unknown in other shorebirds but found in flamingos), and frequent saline temporary lakes (in this case in southern Australia) where they feed on enormous quantities of small crustaceans […] .

   • 2003, John L. Read, Red Sand, Green Heart: Ecological Adventures in the Outback, page 152,

     Banded stilts are unusual in that unlike other waders their breeding seems to be reserved for rare occasions when most of the species congregate on individual salt lakes.

   • 2008, W. D. Williams, 8: Lakes in Arid Environments, Patrick O'Sullivan, C. S. Reynolds (editors), The Lakes Handbook, Volume 2: Lake Restoration and Rehabilitation, page 221,

     This is important because the gull is a significant predator of the banded stilt during its breeding in episodic salt lakes (Robinson 81 Minton1990).