Order: Ciconiformes

Family: Ciconidae

 

Size:  up to 93 - 102 cm

Weight: around 2 to 3.5 kg

 

Key Features: It is a large and fabulously colourful water bird with a striking wing pattern. Although a drab brown when young, as an adult the painted stork displays primarily white plumage, with a bright pink tinge towards the tail and a black band of feathers across the chest. The broad wings appear striped black and white while folded, but when outstretched are almost entirely black apart from a white band in the centre. The painted stork has a long, yellow-orange bill, a vivid yellow-orange face, and pink legs. This beautiful bird also has an incredibly long neck which, like most other storks, it holds outstretched during its elegant, soaring flight. On first glance both the male and female painted stork look alike. However, the male tends to have a larger body and bill than the female. Outside of the breeding season, the plumage, face and legs of the painted stork appear duller.

 

Breeding: mating season of the painted stork usually coincides with the latter part of the rainy season, typically occurring from August to October in the north of its range and November to March in the south. During this time, the male chooses a nest site and defends a territory, using bill pecking to ward off the more persistent competition. The female then selects a male, favouring larger individuals. Courtship takes the form of an elaborate bowing ritual, and once a pair has formed, they construct the nest together. It is a colonial nester, so a single tree may end up being full of nests situated just 30 centimetres apart. They often returns to the breed in the same tree year after year and often nests in mixed colonies with other water birds, such as storks, ibises and herons. The nest of this species consists of a platform of sticks, lined with vegetation. The female painted stork lays between two and five eggs, which are incubated for around a month, with both the male and female taking turns at incubation.

 

Diet:  feeds on fish, reptiles, frogs and crustaceans.

 

Habitat: Open areas which support aquatic life, such as wetlands, marshes, ponds and flooded fields, are the preferred foraging habitat of the painted stork. It typically nests in waterside trees or tall bushes, with tamarind trees (Tamarindus indica) being a favoured nesting site.

 

Habits: The painted stork is an efficient angler, typically foraging for fish in water up to 25 centimetres deep, although it has been known to venture deeper to obtain a meal. Either alone or in groups, the painted stork often uses its feet to dislodge prey hidden amongst plants or buried in mud. It typically feeds by walking slowly in shallow water with the bill partly open, groping for prey. Although it often forages during daylight, the painted stork may resort to foraging at night in areas with a high level of human disturbance during the day.

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

References:

Brazil, M. (2009) Birds of East Asia. A & C Black Publishers Ltd, London.

 

Pattanaik, C., Prasad, S.N., Murthy, E.N. and Reddy, C.S. (2008) Conservation of painted stork habitats in Andhra Pradesh. Current Science, 95(8): 1001.

 

Urfi, J.A and Kalam, A. (2006) Sexual size dimorphism and mating pattern in the painted stork (Mycteria leucocephala). Waterbirds, 29(4): 489-496.

 

Thapar, V. (1997) Landof the Tiger. A Natural History of the Indian Subcontinent. University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles.

 

Hancock, J.A., Kushlan, J.A. and Kahl, M.P. (2010) Storks, Ibises and Spoonbills of the World. Christopher Helm Publishers, London.

 

Photo Courtesy

JJ Harrison, Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons