iN PHOTOS: Uncommon long-legged bird spotted in Okanagan Valley

South Okanagan wildlife photographer Amanda Faraday was able to snap a photo of an unusual-looking bird with long stilt legs wading in Okanagan Lake in Penticton a week-and-a-half ago.

“I was at work out walking along the lake and saw an unfamiliar bird,” she said in a message to iNFOnews.ca. “I ran home and grabbed my camera to get a few shots in before the sun set. I didn’t know it was rare until people on a Facebook group started messaging me. Who knew finding a bird could be so exciting?”

Kurtis Huston, a bird expert at Wild Birds Unlimited, identified the bird as a black-necked stilt.

“That’s interesting, that’s towards its upper range,” he said. “It’s certainly an unusual sighting.”

Last week, a handful of the stilts were spotted relaxing on Robert Lake in Kelowna.

Black-necked stilts are small-bodied black and white shorebirds with very long legs and thin straight bills. They can be seen wading in shallow salt and fresh water and flooded fields looking for aquatic invertebrates to eat, according to Birdful. Their breeding grounds lay from the southern most part of the province through the western United States all the way to northwestern Mexico. The birds’ wintering range is from Baja California south through Mexico and Central America to northern South America.

“It’s a lifer bird for me. His legs are outrageous!” Faraday said.