Stork

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Stork
Temporal range: Early Oligocene to present 30–0  Ma
Ringed white stork.jpg
White stork (Ciconia ciconia)
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Clade: Aequornithes
Order: Ciconiiformes
Bonaparte, 1854 [1]
Family: Ciconiidae
J. E. Gray, 1840 [1]
Genera

Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long, stout bills. They belong to the family called Ciconiidae, and make up the order Ciconiiformes /sɪˈkoʊni.ɪfɔːrmiːz/ . Ciconiiformes previously included a number of other families, such as herons and ibises, but those families have been moved to other orders. [2]

Storks dwell in many regions and tend to live in drier habitats than the closely related herons, spoonbills and ibises; they also lack the powder down that those groups use to clean off fish slime. Bill-clattering is an important mode of communication at the nest. Many species are migratory. Most storks eat frogs, fish, insects, earthworms, small birds and small mammals. There are 20 living species of storks in six genera.

Various terms are used to refer to groups of storks, [3] two frequently used ones being a muster of storks and a phalanx of storks.

Storks tend to use soaring, gliding flight, which conserves energy. Soaring requires thermal air currents. Ottomar Anschütz's famous 1884 album of photographs of storks inspired the design of Otto Lilienthal's experimental gliders of the late nineteenth century. Storks are heavy, with wide wingspans: the marabou stork, with a wingspan of 3.2 m (10 ft 6 in) and weight up to 8 kg (18 lb), joins the Andean condor in having the widest wingspan of all living land birds.

Their nests are often very large and may be used for many years. Some nests have been known to grow to over 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) in diameter and about 3 metres (9.8 ft) in depth. All storks were once thought to be monogamous, but this is only partially true. Some species may change mates after migrations, and may migrate without a mate.[ citation needed ]

Storks' large size, serial monogamy, and faithfulness to an established nesting site contribute to their prominence in mythology and culture.[ citation needed ]

All 20 stork species have been assessed by the IUCN and carry a confident Red List status. However, the assessment for several species were based on incorrect assumptions and a general absence of sound information on stork habits. [4]

Etymology

The word "stork" was first used in its current sense by at least the 12th century in Middle English. [5] It is derived from the Old English word "storc", which itself comes from the hypothesised Proto-Germanic *stork and ultimately the Proto-Indo-European *sr̥ǵos. [5] [6] The name refers to the rigid posture of storks, a meaning reflected in the related word stark, which is derived from the Old English "stearc". [7] Several species of storks are known by other common names. The jabiru is named after the Tupí-Guarani words meaning "that which has" and "swollen", referring to its thickset neck. [8] The marabou stork is named after the Arabic word for holy man, murābiṭ, due to the perceived holy nature of the species. [9] The adjutants are named after the military rank, referring to their stiff, military-like gait. [10]

Systematics

A DNA study found that the families Ardeidae, Balaenicipitidae, Scopidae and the Threskiornithidae belong to the Pelecaniformes. This would make Ciconiidae the only group. [11] [12]

Storks were distinct and possibly widespread by the Oligocene. Like most families of aquatic birds, storks seem to have arisen in the Palaeogene, maybe 40–50 million years ago (mya). For the fossil record of living genera, documented since the Middle Miocene (about 15 mya) at least in some cases, see the genus articles.

No species or subspecies of stork is known to have gone extinct in historic times. A systematic literature review uncovered nearly 1,000 papers on storks, but showed most stork species to lack scientific understanding suggesting that many species should be classified as Data Deficient on the IUCN Red List. A Ciconia bone found in a rock shelter on the island of Réunion was probably of a bird taken there as food by early settlers; no known account mentions the presence of storks on the Mascarene Islands.

Phylogeny

The following phylogeny is recognized by the International Ornithological Congress, partially based on de Sousa et al (2023): [13] [14]

African openbill (Anastomus lamelligerus)

Asian openbill (Anastomus oscitans)

Marabou stork (Leptoptilos crumenifer)

Lesser adjutant (Leptoptilos javanicus)

Greater adjutant (Leptoptilos dubius)

Wood stork (Mycteria americana)

Yellow-billed stork (Mycteria ibis)

Painted stork (Mycteria leucocephala)

Milky stork (Mycteria cinerea)

Jabiru (Jabiru mycteria)

Saddle-billed stork (Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis)

Black-necked stork (Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus)

Abdim's stork (Ciconia abdimii)

Asian woolly-necked stork (Ciconia episcopus)

Storm's stork (Ciconia stormi)

Black stork (Ciconia nigra)

Maguari stork (Ciconia maguari)

African woolly-necked stork (Ciconia microscelis)

White stork (Ciconia ciconia)

Oriental stork (Ciconia boyciana)

Fossil storks

The fossil genera Eociconia (Middle Eocene of China) and Ciconiopsis (Deseado Early Oligocene of Patagonia, Argentina) are often tentatively placed with this family. A "ciconiiform" fossil fragment from the Touro Passo Formation found at Arroio Touro Passo (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil) might be of the living wood stork M. americana; it is at most of Late Pleistocene age, a few 10,000s of years. [20]

European white stork in a nest in Bisag, Croatia Dvorac Bisag - roda.jpg
European white stork in a nest in Bisag, Croatia

Morphology

Mycteria storks, like this yellow-billed stork, have sensitive bills that allow them to hunt by touch Yellow-billed Stork (Mycteria ibis) (12011503884).jpg
Mycteria storks, like this yellow-billed stork, have sensitive bills that allow them to hunt by touch

Storks range in size from the marabou, which stands 152 cm (60 in) tall and can weigh 8.9 kg (19+1⁄2 lb), to the Abdim's stork, which is only 75 cm (30 in) high and weighs only 1.3 kg (2+3⁄4 lb). Their shape is superficially similar to the herons, with long legs and necks, but they are more heavy-set. There is some sexual dimorphism (differences between males and females) in size, with males being up to 15% bigger than females in some species (for example the saddle-billed stork), but almost no difference in appearance. The only difference is in the colour of the iris of the two species in the genus Ephippiorhynchus . [21]

The bills of storks are large to very large, and vary considerably between the genera. The shape of the bills is linked to the diet of the different species. The large bills of the Ciconia storks are the least specialized. Larger are the massive and slightly upturned bills of the Ephippiorhynchus and the jabiru. These have evolved to hunt for fish in shallow water. Larger still are the massive daggers of the two adjutants and marabou (Leptoptilos), which are used to feed on carrion and in defense against other scavengers, as well as for taking other prey. [21] The long, ibis-like downcurved bills of the Mycteria storks have sensitive tips that allow them to detect prey by touch (tactilocation) where cloudy conditions would not allow them to see it. [22] The most specialised bills of any storks are those of the two openbills (Anastomus), which as their name suggests, is open in the middle when their bill is closed. These bills have evolved to help openbills feed on their primary prey item, aquatic snails. [23]

Although it is sometimes reported that storks lack syrinxes and are mute, [24] they do have syrinxes, [25] and are capable of making some sounds, although they do not do so often. [21] [26] The syrinxes of storks are "variably degenerate" however, [25] and the syringeal membranes of some species are found between tracheal rings or cartilage, an unusual arrangement shared with the ovenbirds. [27]

Distribution and habitat

Lesser adjutants will forage in marine habitats, unlike most storks Lesser Adjutant (Leptoptilos javanicus) - Flickr - Lip Kee (4).jpg
Lesser adjutants will forage in marine habitats, unlike most storks
Marabou stork at Etosha National Park in Namibia Marabou stork at Etosha National Park, Namibia.jpg
Marabou stork at Etosha National Park in Namibia

Storks have a nearly cosmopolitan distribution, being absent from the poles, most of North America and large parts of Australia. The centres of stork diversity are in tropical Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, with eight and six breeding species respectively. Just three species are present in the New World: wood stork, maguari stork and jabiru, which is the tallest flying bird of the Americas. Two species, white and black stork, reach Europe and western temperate Asia, while one species, Oriental stork, reaches temperate areas of eastern Asia, and one species, black-necked stork, is found in Australasia. [21]

Storks are more diverse and common in the tropics, and the species that live in temperate climates for the most part migrate to avoid the worst of winter. They are fairly diverse in their habitat requirements. Some species, particularly the Mycteria "wood storks" and Anastomus openbills, are highly dependent on water and aquatic prey, but many other species are far less dependent on this habitat type, although they will frequently make use of it. Species like the marabou and Abdim's stork will frequently be found foraging in open grasslands of savannah. Preferred habitats include flooded grasslands, light woodland, marshes and paddyfields, wet meadows, river backwaters and ponds. Many species will select shallow pools, particularly when lakes or rivers are drying out, as they concentrate prey and make it harder for prey to escape, or when monsoonal rainfall increases water depth of larger waterbodies. [21] [28] Some species like the woolly-necked storks and lesser adjutant storks have adapted to changing crops of tropical agricultural landscapes that enables them to remain resident despite the transformations brought about by seasonal crops. [29] [30] [31] [32] In South Africa, the woolly-necked storks have adapted to artificial feeding and now largely nest on trees in gardens with swimming pools. [33]

Less typical habitats include the dense temperate forests used by European black storks, or the rainforest habitat sought by Storm's stork in South East Asia. They generally avoid marine habitats, with the exception of the lesser adjutant, milky stork and wood stork, all of which forage in mangroves, lagoons and estuarine mudflats. A number of species, especially woolly-necked storks, black-necked storks, Asian openbills and lesser adjutant Storks in south Asia, have adapted to highly modified human habitats, for foraging and breeding. [28] [34] [35] [36] In the absence of persecution several stork species breed close to people, and species such as the marabou, greater adjutant, and white stork feed at landfill sites. [21] [37]

Migration and movements

Abdim's storks are regular intra-African migrants Abdim's Stork (Ciconia abdimii) (7011390701).jpg
Abdim's storks are regular intra-African migrants

Storks vary in their tendency towards migration. Temperate species like the white stork, black stork and Oriental stork undertake long annual migrations in the winter. The routes taken by these species have developed to avoid long distance travel across water, and from Europe this usually means flying across the Straits of Gibraltar or east across the Bosphorus and through Israel and the Sinai. [21] Studies of young birds denied the chance to travel with others of their species have shown that these routes are at least partially learnt, rather than being innate as they are in passerine migrants. [38] Migrating black storks are split between those that make stopovers on the migration between Europe and their wintering grounds in Africa, and those that do not. [39]

The Abdim's stork is another migrant, albeit one that migrates within the tropics. It breeds in northern Africa, from Senegal to the Red Sea, during the wet season, and then migrates to Southern Africa. [40] Many species that are not regular migrants will still make smaller movements if circumstances require it; others may migrate over part of their range. This can also include regular commutes from nesting sites to feeding areas. Wood storks have been observed feeding 130 km (80 mi) from their breeding colony. [21]

Behaviour

Feeding and diet

African openbill foraging in shallow water African openbill, Anastomus lamelligerus, Chobe National Park, Botswana (32390774275).jpg
African openbill foraging in shallow water

Storks are carnivorous predators, taking a range of reptiles, small mammals, insects, fish, amphibians and other small invertebrates. Storks usually hunt for animals in shallow water. Any plant material consumed is usually by accident. Mycteria storks are specialists in feeding on aquatic vertebrates, particularly when prey is concentrated by lowering water levels or flooding into shallows. On marine mudflats and mangrove swamps in Sumatra, milky storks feed on mudskippers, probing the burrow with the bill and even the whole head into the mud.[ citation needed ] The characteristic feeding method involves standing or walking in shallow water and holding the bill submerged in the water. When contact is made with prey the bill reflexively snaps shut in 25 milliseconds, one of the fastest reactions known in any vertebrate. The reaction is able to distinguish between prey items and inanimate objects like branches, although the exact mechanism is unknown. [41] [21]

Openbills are specialists in freshwater molluscs, particularly apple snails. They feed in small groups, [28] and sometimes African openbills ride on the backs of hippos while foraging. Having caught a snail it will return to land or at least to the shallows to eat it. The fine tip of the bill of the openbills is used to open the snail, and the saliva has a narcotic effect, which causes the snail to relax and simplifies the process of extraction. [21]

The other genera of storks are more generalised. Ciconia storks are very generalised in their diets, and some species including Abdim's stork and marabous will feed in large flocks on swarms of locusts and at wildfires. [21] [42] This is why white storks and Abdim's storks are known as "grasshopper birds". Ephippiorhynchus are carnivorous though have a very diverse diet when living on human modified habitats such as agricultural landscapes. [43] The foraging method used by the generalists is to stalk or walk across grassland or shallow water, watching for prey. [21]

Breeding

Storks range from being solitary breeders through loose breeding associations to fully colonial. The jabiru, Ephippiorhynchus storks and several species of Ciconia are entirely solitary when breeding. [36] [44] [45] In contrast the Mycteria storks, Abdim's stork, openbills and Leptoptilos storks breed in colonies which can range from a couple of pairs to thousands. [29] [34] [35] Many of these species breed in colonies with other waterbirds, which can include other species of storks, herons and egrets, pelicans, cormorants and ibises. White storks, Oriental storks and Maguari storks are all loosely colonial, and may breed in nests that are within visual range of others of the same species, but have little to do with one another. They also may nest solitarily, and the reasons why they choose to nest together or apart are not understood. [21] Storks use trees in a variety of habitats to breed including forests, cities, farmlands, and large wetlands. [30] [33] [34] [46]

In culture

Storks feature in several of Aesop's Fables, such as The Fox and the Stork Plate facing page 52, An Argosy of Fables.jpg
Storks feature in several of Aesop's Fables, such as The Fox and the Stork

Many ancient mythologies feature stories and legends involving storks. In Ancient Egypt, saddle-billed storks were seen as being amongst the most powerful animals and were used to represent the ba , the Ancient Egyptian conception of the soul, during the Old Kingdom. [47] Bennu, an Egyptian deity that was later the inspiration for the phoenix, may also have been inspired by a stork, although it was more likely an ibis or heron. [48] [49] Muslims also traditionally revered storks because they made an annual pilgrimage to Mecca on their migration. [50]

Greek and Roman mythology portrays storks as models of parental devotion. The 3rd century Roman writer Aelian, citing the authority of Alexander of Myndus, noted in his De natura animalium (book 3, chapter 23) that aged storks flew away to oceanic islands where they were transformed into humans as a reward for their piety towards their parents. [51] Storks were also thought to care for their aged parents, feeding them and even transporting them, and children's books depicted them as a model of filial values. A Greek law called Pelargonia, from the Ancient Greek word pelargos for stork, required citizens to take care of their aged parents.[ citation needed ] The Greeks also held that killing a stork could be punished with death. [52]

Storks feature in several of Aesop's Fables, most notably in The Farmer and the Stork, The Fox and the Stork, and The Frogs Who Desired a King. The first fable involves a stork who is caught with a group of cranes who are eating grain in a farmer's field, with the moral that those who associate with wicked people can be held accountable for their crimes. [53] The Fox and the Stork involves a fox who invites a stork for dinner and provides soup in a dish that the stork cannot drink from, and is in turn invited for dinner by the stork and given food in a narrow jug which he cannot access. It cautions readers to follow the principle of do no harm. [54] The third fable involves a group of frogs that are dissatisfied with the king that Zeus has given them, an inanimate log, and who are then punished with a new King Stork (a water-snake in some versions) who eats the frogs. [55] [56] King Stork has subsequently entered the English language as a term for a particularly tyrannical ruler. [57]

Associations with fertility

According to European folklore, the white stork is responsible for bringing babies to new parents. The legend is very ancient, but was popularised by a 19th-century Hans Christian Andersen story called "The Storks". [50] German folklore held that storks found babies in caves or marshes and brought them to households in a basket on their backs or held in their beaks. These caves contained adebarsteine or "stork stones". The babies would then be given to the mother or dropped down the chimney. Households would notify when they wanted children by placing sweets for the stork on the window sill. [58] Subsequently, the folklore has spread around the world to the Philippines and countries in South America. [58] Birthmarks on the back of the head of newborn babies, nevus flammeus nuchae , are sometimes referred to as stork-bite. [59] In Slavic mythology and pagan religion, storks were thought to carry unborn souls from Vyraj to Earth in spring and summer. [60] This belief still persists in the modern folk culture of many Slavic countries, in the simplified child story that "storks bring children into the world". [61] [62]

Psychoanalyst Marvin Margolis suggests the enduring nature of the stork fable of the newborn is linked to its addressing a psychological need, in that it allays the discomfort of discussing sex and procreation with children. Birds have long been associated with the maternal symbols from pagan goddesses such as Juno to the Holy Ghost, and the stork may have been chosen for its white plumage (depicting purity), size, and flight at high altitude (likened to flying between Earth and Heaven). [58]

There were negative aspects to stork folklore as well; a Polish folk tale relates how God made the stork's plumage white, while the Devil gave it black wings, imbuing it with both good and evil impulses. They were also associated with handicapped or stillborn babies in Germany, explained as the stork having dropped the baby en route to the household, or as revenge or punishment for past wrongdoing. A mother who was confined to bed around the time of childbirth was said to have been "bitten" by the stork. In Denmark, storks were said to toss a nestling off the nest and then an egg in successive years. [58] In medieval England, storks were also associated with adultery, possibly inspired by their courtship rituals. Their preening and posture saw them linked with the attribute of self-conceit. [63] Children of African American slaves were sometimes told that white babies were brought by storks, while black babies were born from buzzard eggs. [64]

As food

Storks have never been a particularly common food, but occasionally featured in medieval banquets. [65] They may also have been eaten in Ancient Egypt. [66]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Tarsometatarsus fragments somewhat similar to Mycteria
  2. ↑ Specimen MEF 1363: Incomplete skeleton of a large stork somewhat similar to Jabiru but apparently more plesiomorphic

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White stork</span> Species of bird

The white stork is a large bird in the stork family, Ciconiidae. Its plumage is mainly white, with black on the bird's wings. Adults have long red legs and long pointed red beaks, and measure on average 100–115 cm (39–45 in) from beak tip to end of tail, with a 155–215 cm (61–85 in) wingspan. The two subspecies, which differ slightly in size, breed in Europe, northwestern Africa, southwestern Asia and southern Africa. The white stork is a long-distance migrant, wintering in Africa from tropical Sub-Saharan Africa to as far south as South Africa, or on the Indian subcontinent. When migrating between Europe and Africa, it avoids crossing the Mediterranean Sea and detours via the Levant in the east or the Strait of Gibraltar in the west, because the air thermals on which it depends for soaring do not form over water.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black stork</span> Large migratory bird in the family Ciconiidae

The black stork is a large bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae. Measuring on average 95 to 100 cm from beak tip to end of tail with a 145-to-155 cm (57-to-61 in) wingspan, the adult black stork has mainly black plumage, with white underparts, long red legs and a long pointed red beak. A widespread but uncommon species, it breeds in scattered locations across Europe, and east across the Palearctic to the Pacific Ocean. It is a long-distance migrant, with European populations wintering in tropical Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asian populations in the Indian subcontinent. When migrating between Europe and Africa, it avoids crossing broad expanses of the Mediterranean Sea and detours via the Levant in the east, the Strait of Sicily in the center, or the Strait of Gibraltar in the west. An isolated, non-migratory, population occurs in Southern Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asian woolly-necked stork</span> Species of bird

The Asian woolly-necked stork or Asian woollyneck is a species of large wading bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. It breeds singly, or in small loose colonies. It is distributed in a wide variety of habitats including marshes in forests, agricultural areas, and freshwater wetlands across Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lesser adjutant</span> Species of bird

The lesser adjutant is a large wading bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. Like other members of its genus, it has a bare neck and head. It is however more closely associated with wetland habitats where it is solitary and is less likely to scavenge than the related greater adjutant. It is a widespread species found from India through Southeast Asia to Java.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black-necked stork</span> Species of bird

The black-necked stork is a tall long-necked wading bird in the stork family. It is a resident species across the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia with a disjunct population in Australia. It lives in wetland habitats and near fields of certain crops such as rice and wheat where it forages for a wide range of animal prey. Adult birds of both sexes have a heavy bill and are patterned in white and irridescent blacks, but the sexes differ in the colour of the iris with females sporting yellow irises and males having dark-coloured irises. In Australia, it is known as a jabiru although that name refers to a stork species found in the Americas. It is one of the few storks that are strongly territorial when feeding and breeding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Painted stork</span> Species of bird

The painted stork is a large wader in the stork family. It is found in the wetlands of the plains of tropical Asia south of the Himalayas in the Indian Subcontinent and extending into Southeast Asia. Their distinctive pink tertial feathers of the adults give them their name. They forage in flocks in shallow waters along rivers or lakes. They immerse their half open beaks in water and sweep them from side to side and snap up their prey of small fish that are sensed by touch. As they wade along they also stir the water with their feet to flush hiding fish. They nest colonially in trees, often along with other waterbirds. The only sounds they produce are weak moans or bill clattering at the nest. They are not migratory and only make short-distance movements in some parts of their range in response to changes in weather or food availability or for breeding. Like other storks, they are often seen soaring on thermals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wood stork</span> Wading bird found in the Americas

The wood stork is a large American wading bird in the family Ciconiidae (storks), the only member of the family to breed in North America. It was formerly called the "wood ibis", although it is not an ibis. It is found in subtropical and tropical habitats in the Americas, including the Caribbean. In South America, it is resident, but in North America, it may disperse as far as Florida. Originally described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758, this stork likely evolved in tropical regions. The head and neck are bare of feathers, and dark grey in colour. The plumage is mostly white, with the exception of the tail and some of the wing feathers, which are black with a greenish-purplish sheen. The juvenile differs from the adult, with the former having a feathered head and a yellow bill, compared to the black adult bill. There is very little sexual dimorphism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asian openbill</span> Species of bird

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saddle-billed stork</span> Species of bird

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<i>Ephippiorhynchus</i> Genus of birds

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Milky stork</span> Species of bird

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<i>Mycteria</i> Genus of birds

Mycteria is a genus of large tropical storks with representatives in the Americas, east Africa and southern and southeastern Asia. Two species have "ibis" in their scientific or old common names, but they are not related to these birds and simply look more similar to an ibis than do other storks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greater adjutant</span> Species of bird

The greater adjutant is a member of the stork family, Ciconiidae. Its genus includes the lesser adjutant of Asia and the marabou stork of Africa. Once found widely across southern Asia and mainland southeast Asia, the greater adjutant is now restricted to a much smaller range with only three breeding populations; two in India, with the largest colony in Assam, a smaller one around Bhagalpur; and another breeding population in Cambodia. They disperse widely after the breeding season. This large stork has a massive wedge-shaped bill, a bare head and a distinctive neck pouch. During the day, it soars in thermals along with vultures with whom it shares the habit of scavenging. They feed mainly on carrion and offal; however, they are opportunistic and will sometimes prey on vertebrates. The English name is derived from their stiff "military" gait when walking on the ground. Large numbers once lived in Asia, but they have declined to the point of endangerment. The total population in 2008 was estimated at around a thousand individuals. In the 19th century, they were especially common in the city of Calcutta, where they were referred to as the "Calcutta adjutant" and included in the coat of arms for the city. Known locally as hargila and considered to be unclean birds, they were largely left undisturbed but sometimes hunted for the use of their meat in folk medicine. Valued as scavengers, they were once depicted in the logo of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation.

<i>Ciconia</i> Genus of birds

Ciconia is a genus of birds in the stork family. Six of the seven living species occur in the Old World, but the maguari stork has a South American range. In addition, fossils suggest that Ciconia storks were somewhat more common in the tropical Americas in prehistoric times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African openbill</span> Species of stork

The African openbill is a species of stork from the family Ciconiidae. It is widely distributed in Sub-Saharan Africa and western regions of Madagascar. This species is considered common to locally abundant across its range, although it has a patchy distribution. Some experts consider there to be two sub-species, A. l. lamelligerus distributed on the continent and A. l. madagascariensis living on the island of Madagascar. Scientists distinguish between the two sub-species due to the more pronounced longitudinal ridges on the bills of adult A. l. madagascariensis. The Asian openbill found in Asia is the African openbill’s closest relative. The two species share the same notably large bill of a peculiar shape that gives them their name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maguari stork</span> Species of bird

The maguari stork is a large species of stork that inhabits seasonal wetlands over much of South America, and is very similar in appearance to the white stork; albeit slightly larger. It is the only species of its genus to occur in the New World and is one of the only three New World stork species, together with the wood stork and the jabiru.

Jabiru codorensis is an extinct species of stork related to the extant Jabiru. It lived in what is now Venezuela during the Pliocene period and appears to have been similar to its modern relative.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African woolly-necked stork</span> Species of bird

The African woolly-necked stork or African woollyneck is a species of large wading bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. It breeds singly, or in small loose colonies. It is distributed in a wide variety of habitats including marshes in forests, agricultural areas, and freshwater wetlands across Africa.

References

  1. 1 2 Brands, Sheila (14 August 2008). "Systema Naturae 2000 / Classification, Class Aves". Project: The Taxonomicon. Retrieved 11 June 2012.
  2. ↑ "Anastomus lamelligerus subsp. lamelligerus". www.gbif.org. Archived from the original on 2018-08-03. Retrieved 2018-03-22.
  3. ↑ About the Wood Stork: Denizens of the Wetlands Archived 2011-07-27 at the Wayback Machine , Accessed on 13.12.2010
  4. ↑ Gula, Jonah; Sundar, K. S. Gopi; Willows-Munro, Sandi; Downs, Colleen T. (2023). "The state of stork research globally: A systematic review". Biological Conservation. 280 (April 2023): 109969.
  5. 1 2 "stork". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary . Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  6. ↑ Blažek, Václav (2003). "A Tocharian key to the etymology of the bird-name *sr̥ǵos-"stork"". Tocharian and Indo-European Studies . 10: 15–16. ISBN   9788021076457.
  7. ↑ "stork" . Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/OED/3439296373 . Retrieved 2023-07-29.(Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  8. ↑ "jabiru" . Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/OED/1060893535 . Retrieved 2023-07-29.(Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  9. ↑ "marabou stork" . Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/OED/5740365926 . Retrieved 2023-07-29.(Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  10. ↑ "adjutant stork" . Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/OED/9863034263 . Retrieved 2023-07-29.(Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  11. ↑ Gibb, Gillian C.; Kennedy, Martyn; Penny, David (2013). "Beyond phylogeny: Pelecaniform and ciconiiform birds, and long-term niche stability". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 68 (2): 229–238. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2013.03.021. PMID   23562800.
  12. ↑ Kuramoto, Tae; Nishihara, Hidenori; Watanabe, Maiko; Okada, Norihiro (2015). "Determining the Position of Storks on the Phylogenetic Tree of Waterbirds by Retroposon Insertion Analysis". Genome Biology and Evolution. 7 (12): 3180–3189. doi:10.1093/gbe/evv213. PMC   4700946 . PMID   26527652.
  13. ↑ de Sousa, Rodrigo Petry Corrêa; Campos, Paula Sabrina Bronze; dos Santos, Michelly da Silva; O’Brien, Patricia Caroline; Ferguson-Smith, Malcolm Andrew; de Oliveira, Edivaldo Herculano Corrêa (April 2023). "Cytotaxonomy and Molecular Analyses of Mycteria americana (Ciconiidae: Ciconiiformes): Insights on Stork Phylogeny". Genes. 14 (4): 816. doi: 10.3390/genes14040816 . ISSN   2073-4425. PMC   10138051 . PMID   37107574.
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  16. 1 2 Noriega, Jorge Ignacio & Cladera, Gerardo (2005). First Record of Leptoptilini (Ciconiiformes: Ciconiidae) in the Neogene of South America. Abstracts of Sixth International Meeting of the Society of Avian Paleontology and Evolution: 47. PDF fulltext Archived 2008-02-28 at the Wayback Machine
  17. ↑ Specimens BMNH 39741 (holotype, left proximal tarsometatarsus) and BMNH 39734 (right distal tibiotarsus). Similar to Ephippiorhynchus and Leptotilos, may be from a small female of Leptotilos falconeri , from L. dubius, or from another species: Louchart, Antoine; Vignaud, Patrick; Likius, Andossa; Brunet, Michel & White, Tim D. (2005). "A large extinct marabou stork in African Pliocene hominid sites, and a review of the fossil species of Leptoptilos" (PDF). Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 50 (3): 549–563. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-02-28. Retrieved 2008-01-15.
  18. ↑ Distal radius of a mid-sized Ciconia or smallish Mycteria: Steadman, David W.; Arroyo-Cabrales, Joaquin; Johnson, Eileen & Guzman, A. Fabiola (1994). "New Information on the Late Pleistocene Birds from San Josecito Cave, Nuevo León, Mexico" (PDF). Condor . 96 (3): 577–589. doi:10.2307/1369460. JSTOR   1369460.
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  29. 1 2 Katuwal, Hem B.; Sundar, K. S. Gopi; Zhang, M; Rimal, B; Baral, H. S.; Sharma, H. P.; Ghimire, P; Hughes, A. C.; Quan, R.-C. (2022). "Factors affecting the breeding ecology of the globally threatened Lesser Adjutant (Leptoptilos javanicus) in agricultural landscapes of Nepal". Avian Conservation and Ecology. 17 (2): 15. doi: 10.5751/ACE-02235-170215 . S2CID   251862746.
  30. 1 2 Kittur, Swati; Sundar, K. S. Gopi (2021). "Of irrigation canals and multifunctional agroforestry: Traditional agriculture facilitates Woolly-necked Stork breeding in a north Indian agricultural landscape". Global Ecology and Conservation. 30 (October 2021): e01793. doi: 10.1016/j.gecco.2021.e01793 . S2CID   239153561.
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  33. 1 2 Thabethe, V; McPherson, S; Downs, C. T. (2021). "Diet of nestling African woolly-necked storks in suburban areas of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa". African Journal of Ecology. 59 (3): 769–772. doi:10.1111/aje.12859. S2CID   233950996.
  34. 1 2 3 Koju, Roshila; Maharjan, Bijay; Gosai, Kamal Raj; Kittur, Swati; Sundar, K.S. Gopi (2019). "Ciconiiformes nesting on trees in cereal-dominated farmlands: importance of scattered trees for heronries in lowland Nepal". Waterbirds. 42 (4): 355–365. doi: 10.1675/063.042.0401 . S2CID   210861485.
  35. 1 2 Sundar, K.S. Gopi; Maharjan, Bijay; Koju, Roshila; Kittur, Swati; Gosai, Kamal Raj (2016). "Factors affecting provisioning times of two stork species in lowland Nepal". Waterbirds. 39 (4): 365–374. doi: 10.1675/063.039.0406 . S2CID   90680383.
  36. 1 2 Kittur, Swati; Sundar, K. S. Gopi (2021). "Of irrigation canals and multifunctional agroforestry: Traditional agriculture facilitates Woolly-necked Stork breeding in a north Indian agricultural landscape". Global Ecology and Conservation. 30: e01793. doi: 10.1016/j.gecco.2021.e01793 . ISSN   2351-9894. S2CID   239153561.
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