Beautiful Black-necked Stilts are Breeding!

Black-necked Stile, male

Black-necked Stilt, female

The Black-necked Stilts are nesting at the Bailey Tract on Sanibel, FL. The female (brown back) took a break from incubating to feed and the male sat on the nest, then the female returned and resumed incubating. These beautiful shorebirds breed in the shallow water of marshes, ponds, fields, and impoundments in coastal areas of some of the eastern half of the country and in some coastal and inland areas of the western half of the country. Even though there are plans to fill in one of the ponds in the Bailey Tract to create more marsh, we hope it it after these wonderful birds are through breeding.