The Story
This is a juvenile Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus) that I photographed near the Mai Po Marshes in Hong Kong’s northwest New Territories on March 22, 2018. It is a very long-legged wader of the avocet and stilt family. IUCN lists the species as Least Concern. The Mai Po Marshes nature reserve covers 380 acres on Deep Bay, a shallow estuary of international importance. Mai Po lies within the Inner Deep Bay Ramsar site, listed as a Wetland of International Importance in 1995. WWF Hong Kong has managed the Mai Po reserve since 1983.
I made this frame with a Pentax K-1 and the HD PENTAX-D FA 150-450mm F4.5-5.6ED DC AW, at 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100, −1 EV. Deep Bay faces pollution and development pressure, so protected wetlands like Mai Po matter for the birds that depend on it.
©2018 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus) belongs to the family Recurvirostridae (Stilts and Avocets) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2025), with the population trend listed as stable. Source: IUCN Red List