While birding at the Bear Island Wildlife Management Area in South Carolina this past weekend, I was pleased to find a pair of Black-necked Stilts wading through a shallow pond.
While they were a good distance away (resulting in these super cropped photos lol) from my vantage point it was still pretty cool to lay eyes on these elegant birds.

Black-necked Stilts can be found in the coastal counties of the Carolinas looking for a meal in fresh to brackish, still waters. They seem to prefer hunting in man-made bodies of water such as flooded out impoundments, dredge ponds, roadside runoff ditches and sewage treatment ponds. A nice thing because this gives us better opportunities to access areas for viewing them.
Always on the lookout for a snack, these long legged waders forage by probing the mud with its bill and by gleaning for flashes of sunlight bouncing off of its aquatic prey such as crustaceans and other arthropods, mollusks, small fish and tadpoles.
When their main source of food is scarce they’ll even eat plant seeds.

Black-necked Stilts are known to breed in the Carolinas may be found from now through late September. Unlike many of our other shorebird species, they are quite intolerant to cold weather so as soon as autumns chill arrives, they head south.
Luckily we are just getting into spring so you’ve got plenty of time to go see these gorgeous birds for yourself.

Photos & video by @sally_siko of @bestlife_birding on my mighty mirrorless monster, the @canonusa #R5