Black stilt | |
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Wild kakī in Lake Tekapo | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Charadriiformes |
Family: | Recurvirostridae |
Genus: | Himantopus |
Species: | H. novaezelandiae
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Binomial name | |
Himantopus novaezelandiae Gould, 1841
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The black stilt (Himantopus novaezelandiae) or kakī (Māori) is a wading bird found in New Zealand. It is one of the world's rarest birds, with 169 adults surviving in the wild as of May 2020. Adult kakī have distinctive black plumage, long pink legs, and a long thin black bill. Black stilts largely breed in the Mackenzie Basin in the South Island, and are threatened by introduced feral cats, ferrets, and hedgehogs as well as habitat degradation from hydroelectric dams, agriculture, and invasive weeds.