black-necked stilt with broken/necrotic leg

[Allen Hirsch]

At Garretson Point pond yesterday, I noticed a black-necked stilt that would
flutter its wings to move about in the pond & marsh instead of walking, so I spent some time capturing images of this, since it was behavior I haven't seen before.

But I didn't realize why it did this until I looked at my images today (on a bigger screen than the camera LCD) and saw that this stilt has a broken leg.


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[Dan Brown]

Allen, I saw your post on EBB today. Good documentation. This is a much better look at a very nasty break:eek: I suppose that unless an infection gets him/her, things will be ok. I've seen a few shorebirds hopping around on one leg that actually did only have one and doing ok! Let's hope for the best.

[John Chardine]

Ouch. But wild animals are remarkably resilient. The leg looks like it's attached by some dried skin at this point so I would imagine the leg will fall off and the bird will be fine.

99.99% of shorebirds with "one leg" are just hiding one.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

I agree Dan, there are a few Killdeers in this areas with either one leg or a bad foot. These seem to do alright. I hope/trust he will be just fine.