The White-headed Stilt - which used to be called the Pied Stilt - has greatly increased its range in New Zealand over the last 100 years. It breeds in open swamps, lagoons, riverbeds, estuaries and salt marshes between July and February. It usually lays one clutch of four brown-olive, oval shaped eggs which are heavily marked with brown-black blotches which both parents incubate for 24 to 25 days. The eggs hatch together, and if the weather is fine the chicks leave the nest within a few hours and forage for food together while being guarded by one parent. The chicks fledge at four to five weeks, and the family disbands a few weeks after that. After the breeding season hundreds, if not thousands, flock to the northern harbours. Autumn and winter flocks feed on tidal flats and shallow muddy ... read morelagoons eating mainly water insects and crustaceans.
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