Wikipedia:Today's featured article/July 7, 2018
The banded stilt (Cladorhynchus leucocephalus) is a nomadic wader of the stilt and avocet family, Recurvirostridae, native to Australia. It gets its name from the red-brown breast band found on breeding adults, though this is mottled or entirely absent in non-breeding adults and juveniles. Its remaining plumage is pied and the eyes are dark brown. Nestling banded stilts have white down, unlike any other species of wader. Breeding is triggered by the filling of inland salt lakes by rainfall, creating large shallow lakes rich in tiny shrimp on which the birds feed. Banded stilts migrate to these and assemble in large breeding colonies. The female lays three to four brown- or black-splotched whitish eggs on a scrape. The species is not threatened, but it is subject to predation by silver gulls, black falcons and wedge-tailed eagles, and is designated as vulnerable under the South Australian National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972. (Full article...)