Black-necked Stilt

How to find it

Look for stilts in small scattered groups, up to about 50 birds, wading in shallow water. Their seasonal movements follow changes in water level, so check wetlands where shallow water is currently present. A guided boat trip on the Río Frío brings you to the muddy marsh edges where they feed. Palo Verde National Park is also listed among the places where visitors can expect to see them, along with its wetlands, lagoons and mangroves. Listen for the yapping, which helps you locate them.

How to recognise it

Look for a slim, small-bodied wader about 38 cm tall.

The key marks are plain and easy to remember:

A long thin neck.

A long thin black bill.

Very long pink to red legs.

Black above, white below.

Adults have a black crown, black sides of the head and a black hindneck. The forehead, a spot above the eye and the whole underside are white. The tail is pale grey and the eye is red. Females are browner on the back.

What it sounds like

Recording: Eduardo Luis Beltrocco, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

Stilts probe soft mud and shallows for small aquatic insects, mollusks, crustaceans, small fish and tadpoles. They are often seen wading in small groups.

To distract predators from eggs or chicks, groups of adults do a popcorn display: they hop up and down, flap their wings and yip loudly. Stilts nest in loosely spread colonies, and many birds may act out a broken-wing display when an observer comes near.

Where it lives

Stilts use shallow fresh or salt water with soft muddy bottoms. That includes ponds, lagoons and salt pans, and sometimes tidal flats and estuaries. The species is listed from the lowlands of both slopes.

A Guanacaste-based writer says he sees stilts only in very open wetlands, never where there is much forest nearby. Resident birds are common in a few places, especially around the Gulf of Nicoya. Elsewhere they are common to abundant in parts of Guanacaste, mainly the Tempisque basin, and in the Río Frío area. Away from these areas they turn up only sporadically and in small numbers in the lowlands of both the Caribbean and Pacific slopes.

When to see it

Costa Rica has year-round resident stilts, and migrants from the north join them from October to May. At one northern wetland they can be seen throughout the year, though most waterbirds, stilts included, show up in the dry season.

Similar birds

On the Río Frío, stilts feed alongside small sandpipers, yellowlegs and Blue-winged Teal, so you will often compare them with these. The stilt stands apart by its black and white plumage and its very long pink to red legs.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

The AOCR Spanish name is Cigüeñuela Cuellinegro, and Costa Ricans also call it Soldadito. One Tico Times writer prefers Soldadito, saying the birds look like little soldiers in black and white uniforms standing at attention.

Status and conservation

Listed as R,M on the AOCR list: a resident with migrant birds joining it, common to abundant in parts of Guanacaste.

Photography tips

Check wetlands where shallow water is currently present, since stilts move with water levels. Boat trips along muddy marsh edges put you close to feeding groups. If a group greets you with nonstop yipping, you are probably close enough.