Order: Ciconiformes

Family: Ciconidae

 

Size:  up to 129 - 137 cm

Weight: around 4.1 kg

 

Key Features: It is a huge wading bird with a spectacular and distinctive plumage. Easily recognised by its striking black-and-white markings, this bird possesses a jet-black head, wing bar and tail, which contrast against the white plumage of the rest of the body. Other characteristic features include an iridescent neck that appears green, blue or purple depending on the angle, a massive black bill and long, coral-red legs. Sexes are identical except for the colour of the iris, which is yellow in the female, brown in the male. Juveniles are brown instead of black-and-white, and sub-adults resemble adults, but the white plumage is duskier and the legs are black.

Voice: they are very silent except at nest where they make bill-clattering sounds. The sounds produced are of a low-pitch and resonant and ends with a short sigh.

 

Breeding: Pairs of black-necked storks bond for several years, possibly for life, and remain together during the non-breeding season, maintaining and defending discrete territories. Thus, courtship displays are minimal, occasionally consisting of some bowing and clapping of bills, and mating usually occurs at the nest. Two to four white, conical eggs are laid and incubated by both parents, which also share the role of caring for the chicks once hatched. Birds studied in India started breeding immediately after the monsoon in September, with most chicks hatching by mid-January and fledging by mid-March. Young birds usually remained on their natal territories for 14 to 18 months, with some remaining up to 28 months.

 

Diet: Has a carnivorous diet, feeding on a wide range of items, including fish, small crustaceans, amphibians, large insects, birds, lizards, snakes, turtles and rodents.

 

Habitat: Found in wetlands such as freshwater marshes, lakes, pools, large rivers, irrigation canals, flooded agriculture fields, and occasionally mangroves and coastal mudflats, with tall trees nearby to breed in, up to 1,200 metres.

 

Habits: This large stork has a dance-like display. A pair stalks up to each other face to face, extending their wings and fluttering the wing tips rapidly and advancing their heads until the meet. They then clatter their bills and walk away. The display lasts for a minute and may be repeated several times.

 

Conservation Status: Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

 

 

 

 

 

References:

Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved on June 16, 2014 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-necked_stork

 

Australian Museum Online. http://www.amonline.net.au/factsheets/jabiru.htm

 

Sundar, K.S.G. (2004) Group size and habitat use by Black-necked Storks Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus in an agriculture-dominated landscape in Uttar Pradesh, India. Bird Conservation International, 14: 323 - 334.

 

BirdLife International (2014) Species factsheet: Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on July 04th, 2014.

 

Photo Courtesy

J.M.Garg, Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons