Habitat

Edges of salt ponds, sewage ponds, or shallow inland wetlands, but usually in fresher parts of wetland with emergent vegetation (including cattails [Typha latifolia], bulrush [Scirpus spp.], and sedges [Carex spp.] in the wettest areas); also flooded lowlands or permanently flooded pastures. Nests on short emergent vegetation stubble over water and on dikes, islands, or high spots with sparse vegetation such as glasswort (Salicornia spp.) and saltgrass (Distichlis spp.). Occasional nests constructed on algal mats. Strong tendency to nest on human-made impoundments (Dinsmore 1977, JPS, JAR, and LWO). See also Breeding: nest site, below.

Salt marshes, shallow lagoons with muddy shores, salt ponds, evaporation ponds and other impoundments, rice fields. Evaporation ponds, agricultural croplands, and managed wetlands most heavily used habitats in California Central Valley (Shuford et al. 1994a).

Rice fields, salt marshes, and, rarely, marine shores. In Florida (Dinsmore 1977): impounded settling ponds rimmed with knotgrass (Paspalum vaginatum) and saltbush (Baccharis sp.). In Central America and South America, mangrove swamps, with stilts moving back into grassland pools and flooded lowlands during rainy periods (Wetmore 1965, McNeil 1971). Stilts wintering in Sinaloa, w. Mexico, were evenly distributed throughout interior parts of coastal bays; birds were nearly always in pairs (Engilis et al. 1998).

In ne. Venezuela, found year round in fresh and brackish lagoons and saltwater lagoons surrounded by mangrove forest; also in flooded lowlands during the rainy season (McNeil 1971). On the island of St. Croix, in dry areas of salt ponds, in adjacent uplands, and on constructed mounds of vegetation within the saltwater (W. Knowles pers. comm.).

In Hawaiian Is.: islets, islands, edges of shallow ponds, and mud flats where water is fresh to saline (up to 116 ppt recorded; Coleman 1981) and ancient fishponds constructed by Hawaiians (Morin 1994). In most wetlands, the predominant vegetation is invasive and introduced, and must be controlled by active management. Characteristic associated wetland plants include nonnative pickleweed (Batis maritima) and nonnative California grass (Brachiaria mutica; Coleman 1981). Other characteristic wetland plants include Paspalum spp. (seashore paspalum or knotgrass), native ‘ae‘ae or water hyssop (Bacopa monnieri), native ‘äkulikuli or sea purslane (Sesuvium portulacastrum), the native sedge makaloa (Cyperus laevigatus), and the native sedge kaluhä (Bolboschoenus maritimus; M. Morin pers. comm.). Nesting almost exclusively on human-maintained wetlands because others are too overgrown. Also uses edges of taro ponds (Broshears 1979), but harvest and deliberate flooding of the ponds often affect reproduction (JMR).