Two questions arise when considering all three birds in today’s featured image.
The obvious one: “clearly, their wings are not black, so how do they merit their name?”
The other one: “why is Himantopus himantopus in the Guinness Book of Records?”
In northern central India it was winter when I took the photo.
Had the birds been in the very same place in summer, their plumage would have looked “appropriately” black and white…if the birds were all males.
Females generally have brown wings.
In winter/breeding season both genders’ plumage looks softer and duller – even males are no longer a crisp “study in black and white”.
Ostriches have the bird kingdom’s longest legs.
However, relatively speaking, the black winged stilt is the “leggiest” feathered species currently strutting on “our” planet.
Its long pink legs typically measure up to 60 per cent of its total body length – respectively, 17-24 cm and 35-40 cm.
As Guinness acknowledges, no ostrich can match that!
Click this to discover (and see) more about black-winged stilts.
Photo is copyright Doug Spencer, taken at 10.30 am, 03 February 2020. on the Chambal River, Uttar Pradesh.
Musical bonus
I have no reason to believe that stilts in any way inspired Jeff Lang’s Blues for Matthew.
It is on Jeff’s new album, Interstate Pulse – a (warmly recommended) set of improvisations for 12 string acoustic guitar.
The CD version is a lavishly presented, very limited edition, available here.
However unintentionally, Blues for Matthew sits very well with this post’s featured image.
Intentionally, the video works beautifully with Jeff’s unhurried, spontaneous solo…and a certain other bird species is crucially present….