Talking of Storks

As much of the world is very well aware, Australia has been dominated by unprecedented fires, in extent and intensity, and it's hard to think and talk about anything else. That seems a good reason to offer a blog post on something entirely different - I need a break from the stress and grief of what's happening, as I'm sure do many of you. 

So, why storks? Well, why not? They are among the most impressively imposing and grand birds in the world - 'stately' is often used in describing them - big predators, standing tall and even seemingly menacing at times. 

Saddle-billed Stork Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis, Lake Mburo NP, Uganda. One and a half metres
tall, with a bill 35cm long and a wingspan of well over 2.5 metres, this is a big bird by any standards.
Its long legs are an adaptation to hunting in water and its massive bill can catch big prey; all these
comments are relevant to all storks, to varying degrees.
The staring yellow eyes can give the impression of implacable ferocity, but of course that's just us!

There are 20 species of living storks, in six genera, found throughout the world's tropics and subtropics, with a couple also found in temperate Europe and western Asia. As for the word 'stork', allow me to quote myself from the recent second edition of our book Australian Bird Names; meanings and origins (co-authored with my friend and scholar Jeannie Gray; Jeannie 'did' the Latin names, hence my reference to quoting 'myself' in this instance). "‘Stork’ is an Old English word (from Old German) meaning a stick, applied as a nickname to the nesting storks (White Stork in Britain) which commonly roost on one leg. Lockwood (1984) helpfully noted a secondary meaning in Old German (presumably low Old German!) of penis – which, he claimed, is why storks are said to bring babies." (WB Lockwood's Oxford Dictionary of British Bird Names is a treasure, but is sometimes somewhat speculative.)

Until recently they were included in the same Order as herons and ibis, but are now recognised as having no close relatives and occupy their own Order. 

White Stork Ciconia ciconia, Serengeti NP, Tanazania.
This is the familiar stork of Europe, where it traditionally nests on roofs and chimneys in many
places. After breeding it sensibly migrates to sub-Saharan Africa to avoid the northern winter.

I am in the happy position of being able to offer you 14 of the 20 species today (though a couple, of flying birds, are of dubious quality). 

A good way of introducing the different genera is via their bills, which vary to reflect different feeding strategies. Ciconia (such as the White Stork above) are heavy and straight, and are regarded as the least specialised of stork bills. 

Maguari Stork Ciconia maguari, south Pantanal, western Brazil.
This is the only Ciconia in the Americas and in line with its 'generalised' bill has a broad dietary range,
including fish, crabs, rodents, snakes, insects, worms and bird eggs.

The two Ephippiorhynchus storks - the Saddlebill above, and the Asian and Australian Black-necked Stork E. asiaticus - have massive bills with a slight upslant at the tip, for hunting large prey in shallow water. 

Black-necked Stork swallowing a small python, Fogg Dam near Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.

Saddle-billed Stork with substantial fish (a catfish I think), Amboseli NP, Kenya.

The South American Jabiru Jabiru mycteria has a similar but even more massive bill.

Jabiru, south Panatanal, Brazil. It was hard to believe that it could swallow the huge fish, but
after a lot of battering and careful alignment, it managed it.

Jabiru, north Pantanal, tossing back unfortunate baby caimans, probably recently hatched, as snacks.

For reasons not at all clear, given the very different appearance and colour of the birds, the name jabiru (which is from the Brazilian Tupi-Guaraní language) has been widely used - and still is in Australia - for the two Ephippiorhynchus storks, Saddlebilled in Africa and Black-necked in Australia. In fact in the central Queensland town of Longreach streets named after birds abound, including Jabiru for the locally-occurring stork. Unfortunately reliance on an internet search engine uncoupled from basic bird knowledge has there led to this impressive but embarrassing sign.

Nice Jabiru pic - but the South American one. Oops...

Mycteria storks have slender down-curved bills which they use, in analogy with ibis, to probe into mud and water, finding fish, crabs, frogs and aquatic insects by touch, using a dense network of nerve cells in the bill known as the 'bill tip organ'. 

Wood Storks, south Pantanal, above and below.
It's worth noting that the three South American storks, (this, the Jabiru and Maguari, both above)
belong to different genera and thus feed quite differently.

 

Wood Storks often open their wings while hunting. This was an overcast day and they were foraging
in dense vegetation in a drying wetland, so presumably they weren't trying to shade the water. They may
have been trying to startle prey into revealing itself.

The three Leptoptilos species, the Marabou of Africa and the two Asian Adjutants, have absolutely massive bills; they are primarily carrion eaters and use the bill both for attacking a carcase and fighting off competing scavengers, both birds and mammals.

Marabou Leptoptilos crumenifer, Entebbe Botanic Gardens, Uganda.
Increasingly Marabous are gathering in large numbers at garbage tips.
Chicks are fed on small live prey, which they mostly hunt in dryland situations.

Lastly are the truly remarkable Openbill Storks, Anastomus, one species each from Africa and Asia.

African Openbill Anastomus lamelligerus, Entebbe Botanic Gardens, Uganda.
You can see readily enough the outward curve towards the end of the lower mandible, but not obvious from this
angle is the twist to the side, so that the tips don't meet. Stalked pads at the tip of the upper mandible hold
a big Pila snail against the ground (or underwater mud) while the lower tip stabs past the protecting operculum
to cut the muscle which holds the flesh in the shell. Even more remarkably a narcotic in its saliva
trickles down the bill to assist the process by relaxing the snail.

Nearly all stork pairs are identical, though males are sometimes slightly larger. The sole exception is in the two Ephippiorhynchus species, where the male has dark eyes and the female the glaring yellow.

Black-necked Stork pair, Norman River, Karumba, Gulf of Carpentaria, tropical Queensland.
Female on the left.

Storks, being big birds, are great soarers, using the energy of rising air currents to conserve energy. (And here's where I slip in a couple of very ordinary photos of birds I can't otherwise illustrate.) Unlike herons, storks fly with neck extended.

Black-necked Stork soaring, near Georgetown, north Queensland.

Lesser Adjutant Leptoptilos javanicus, Labuk Bay, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo.

Storm's Stork Ciconia stormi, Sepilok, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo.
This is the world's rarest stork (probably less than 500 left, from far southern Thailand to
Sumatra and Borneo) and hard to see, as it forages on the floor of lowland swampy rainforest.
(My excuses for offering such a poor photo.)

Some storks generally nest solitarily, others nearly always nest in colonies. 

Jabiru and chicks, south Pantanal, Brazil. Their enormous nests are often alone, though there
may also be others in the vicinity.

Yellow-billed Storks Mycteria ibis (here breeding in a sprawling colony along the roadside near
Lake Manyara NP, Tanzania) usually breed in colonies. Here a huge Marabou is nesting above them;
they too usually nest in company and it's common for different stork species to nest together.

We haven't met Yellow-bills yet, and they're very attractive so here's a better look at one.

Yellow-billed Stork, with typical slender curved Mycteria bill (plus Spur-winged Lapwing and of course hippo),
Mazinga Channel, Queen Elizabeth NP, Uganda.

While we're on the subject of 'new' storks, here's a couple more that we haven't yet made the acquaintance of today; both are Ciconia, with the straight all-purpose bill.

African Woolly-necked Stork Ciconia microscelis Lake Nakuru NP, Kenya.
This stork has a huge range, across Africa - formerly however it was even vaster,
when it was lumped with a closely related Asian species.

Abdim's Stork Ciconia abdimii, Serengeti NP, Tanzania.
This east African species is the world's smallest stork, standing less than 80cm high
(half the height of the biggest storks) and weighing up to 1.5kg (compared with a Marabou's 8-9kg).
It eats mostly insects.

If you've made your way this far through the world of storks, thank you - I'm glad that presumably you found something here of interest. I find them them worthy of much consideration and admiration; like most of the rest of the natural world I suppose. I look forward to your company again through 2020.

Marabou at dawn, Shaba Nature Reserve, Kenya.

NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 30 JANUARY.
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