Avocets and Stilts
Family: RECURVIROSTRIDAE (Bonaparte 1854)
Genera: Three genera are recognised.
- Himantopus – Latin; himantopus from Greek himas , himantos strap, thong: pous foot. (Brisson 1760).
- Cladothynchus – Greek; klados thin branch: rhunkhos bill. (Gray, G. 1840).
- Recurvirostra – Latin; recurvus bent, curved backwards (recurvare to bend): rostrum bill (Linnaeus 1758).
Distribution
- Europe: Black-winged Stilt and Pied Avocet
- Africa: Black-winged Stilt and Pied Avocet.
- Asia: Black-winged Stilt and Pied Avocet.
- Australasia: White-headed Stilt, Black Stilt, Banded Stilt and Red-necked Avocet.
- North America; Black-necked Stilt (and subspecies knudseni on Hawai’i) and American Avocet.
- Central and South America: Black-necked Stilt, White-backed Stilt, American Avocet and Andean Avocet.
Current Taxonomy: Three species. Painted-snipes are closely related to jacanas and are commonly placed in a superfamily with them called Jacanoidea.
- Black-winged Stilt Himantopus himantopus (Linnaeus 1758)
- White-headed Stlit H. leucocephalus (Gould 1837)
- Black-necked Stilt H. mexicanus (Müller 1776)
- ∗ H. m. mexicanus (Müller 1776)
- ∗ H. m. knudseni (Stejneger 1887)
- White-backed Stilt H. melanurus (Vieillot 1817)
- Black Stilt H. novaezelandiae (Gould 1841)
- Banded Stilt Cladorhynchus leucocephalus (Vieillot 1816)
- Pied Avocet Recurvirostra avosetta (Linnaeus 1758)
- American Avocet R. americana (Gmelin 1789)
- Red-necked Avocet R. novaehollandiae (Vieillot 1816)
- Andean Avocet R. andina (Philippi & Landbeck 1861)
Past Taxonomy:
- Black-winged Stilt H. himantopus formally and currently in some cases, considered to be a global species with all black-and-white forms as subspecies.
- Black Stilt H. novaezelandiae generally accepted as a separate species although Seebohm considered it to be a colour morph of H. himantopus.
- Subspecies knudseni, originally named H. knudseni by Stejneger, is the only form that universally still retains subspecific status in this group.
- Ibisbill Ibidorhynchus struthersii has sometimes be subsumed into the Recurvisrostridae but currently has single species family status.
Fossil Species
Few recorded but known to exist from the early Cenozoic era (from 66 million years ago to present).
- Himantopus olsoni – (Bickart 1990) Late Miocene
- Recurvirostra sanctaeneboulae (Mourer-Chauviré 1978) Upper Eocene
Bibliograph
- BirdLife International: IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 26/03/2020
- del Hoyo, Josep, Andrew Elliot & Jordi Sargatal: Handbook of the Birds of the World – Vol. 3 (1996)
- Hayman, Peter, John Marchant & Tony Prater: Shorebirds – An identification guide to the waders of the world (1986)
- Jobling, James A.: Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names (2010)
- Seebohm, Henry: The Geographical Distribution of the Family Charadriidae, or, The Plovers, Sandpipers, Snipes, and Their Allies (1888)
- Wikipedia: List of fossil bird genera https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fossil_bird_genera#Charadriiformes
Click on an image for more information about the individual species.
