The Black Stilt is a wader found only in New Zealand. Adults are marked by all-black plumage, long red legs and a thin black bill.
Adults have entirely black plumage, long red legs and a thin black bill. Juvenile plumage differs from that of adults.
It forages in shallow side streams and pools rich in aquatic invertebrates. Most remain in the Mackenzie Basin through winter, while small numbers move to the coast.
Pairs usually defend a territory and nest in vegetation clumps, on banks or in ground depressions. Clutches are nearly always 4 eggs, incubated by both sexes for about 25 days.
Inland it mainly eats aquatic insect larvae and can exploit prey hiding beneath riverbed stones. It also takes fish, molluscs, crustaceans and spiders, and often feeds at night.
In their first winter, young birds have a black back, a smudgy grey hindneck and dark flank markings. The plumage darkens further during the moult into their second summer.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.