Black Stilt (Himantopus novaezelandiae)
About the Black Stilt
The black stilt or kakī (Māori), (Himantopus novaezelandiae) is a wading bird found in New Zealand. It is one of the world's rarest birds, with 169 adults surviving in the wild as of May 2020. Adult kakī have distinctive black plumage, long pink legs, and a long thin black bill. Black stilts largely breed in the Mackenzie Basin in the South Island, and are threatened by introduced feral cats, ferrets, and hedgehogs as well as habitat degradation from hydroelectric dams, agriculture, and invasive weeds.
No audio on this page yet
We only publish recordings we may use commercially, because this site is supported by ads. xeno-canto lists 7 recordings for this species: 4 CC BY-NC-SA · 3 CC BY-NC-ND. None of them permits commercial use, so there is no player here — the page is kept as a profile so the bird is not missing from the guide.
As soon as someone uploads a freely licensed recording, we mirror it and the player appears here.
Listed as recorded in New Zealand in the xeno-canto catalogue.
Related species you can hear
- Black-necked StiltHimantopus mexicanusrecording
- Black-winged StiltHimantopus himantopusrecording
- Pied StiltHimantopus leucocephalusrecording
This species has no recording here yet — these relatives do, so you can hear what the family sounds like.