Banded Stilt

Plumage

Adult:  The head, throat, neck and mantle are white.  The shoulders and wing are sooty black.  The back, rump and tail are white.  The breast is chestnut-brown becoming wider in the mid-line extending down to the belly.  The rest of the underparts are white.  The legs are pink.  The bill is long, straight and black.  The legs trail well behind the tail.

Juvenile:  Similar to the adult but lacks the breast band and there is a grey wash to the head.  The legs are grey.

Confusing Species

Pied Stilt:       This bird has a black head and no breast band.

Red-necked Avocet:      The Avocet has a chestnut-brown head and an upturned bill.  The legs are grey.

This species is most commonly found in saline wetlands, coastal and inland.  It takes advantage of the ephemeral lakes that occur after rain.  It is found in Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and western New South Wales; it does occur as a rare visitor in the rest of New South Wales, Northern Territory and Queensland.

Migratory habits: An endemic species that follows the rains, so is an erratic and seasonal mover.  Its numbers will increase if there is a row of wet seasons, with birds moving to coastal areas.

Breeding

As mentioned this species is an opportunist breeder making the most of wet seasons.  It breeds at the saline inland lakes of Australia, many thousands of birds coming together in huge colonies.  The nest usually has 3 or 4 eggs.  The breeding details are not well known and there are only two breeding records out of Western Australia.  The young birds clump in crèches and then disperse, hopefully before the lakes dry out.

References

1. BirdLife Australia (2023). Whimbrel. [Text before updates sourced from: Marchant, S. et al (eds) 1990-2006 Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds.Volume 1 to 7.] Birdlife Australia. Birdlife Australia. Source: https://hanzab.birdlife.org.au/species/whimbrel/ Accessed: April 30, 2026 Time Zone: +10:00
2. Smith, M. G., M. A. Skeel, E. P. Mallory, and P. Pyle (2025). Eurasian Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.whimbr5.01
3. eBird. 2021. eBird: An online database of bird distribution and abundance [web application]. eBird, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Available:  http://www.ebird.org (Accessed: Date 12/4/2026)
4. Rogers A, Fuller RA & Amano T (2023) Australia’s migratory shorebirds: Trends and prospects. Report to the National Environmental Science Program. University of Queensland, Brisbane.
5. Driessen, J., Kidd, L. R., Weller, D. R., Purnell, C., Maguire, G., Jaensch, R., and LeClair, S. M. (2025). Australian National Directory of Important Migratory Shorebird Habitat. Report for the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. BirdLife Australia, Melbourne.
6. https://sproggies63.github.io/birding_apps/