Black-necked Stork

The Black-necked Stork (Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus) is a large wading bird that is characterized by its bold black and white plumage. It lives in wetlands and around lakes, where they forage for prey including coots, ducks, jacanas, little grebes and other birds, apart from fish, snakes, frogs, crabs and large insects.

Black-necked Stork at Keoladeo Bird Sanctuary, Bharatpur

The Black-necked Stork is stately with a jet black crown, wings and tail contrasting sharply with white on the rest of its body. Males have brown irises, while the female eyes are yellow. There is not much else that differentiates the sexes in this bird. Their necks are glossy iridescent with blue, red, green or purple depending on the light and viewing angle. It has a large black bill and red legs. They weigh approximately 4 kilograms.

Black-necked Stork in flight over Keoladeo Bird Sanctuary, Bharatpur

These birds are seen in south and south-east Asia, and also have a resident population in Australia.  In India, they are found in the west, north and east but rarely in the south. With sightings becoming rarer due to depleting numbers, these birds can sometimes be seen as pairs in places around Delhi – almost certainly at Surajpur Bird Sanctuary in Greater Noida, lesser at Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary in Haryana, and at Keoladeo Bird Sanctuary, Bharatpur where a few pairs reside.

A pair of Black-necked Storks at Surajpur Bird Sanctuary, Greater Noida

These storks are beautiful in flight and often soar in the heat of the day. They are also found sitting for long hours or foraging gracefully as pairs. They build their nests, usually on old trees after the rains, and raise two or three chicks. At times, they even stay as pairs after the breeding season is over.

Black-necked Stork foraging at Surajpur Bird Sanctuary, Greater Noida

The Black-necked Stork is categorized as “vulnerable” by IUCN. Their total number in Asia has plummeted to just about 1,000 birds, while Australia has about 20,000.

At its favorite perch at the Keoladeo Bird Sanctuary, Bharatpur

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All images © Mathew Joseph

Woolly-necked Stork

The Woolly-necked Stork (Ciconia Episcopus) or Bishop Stork or Indian White-necked Stork is a large bird inhabiting wetlands across South Asia and the Far East, and North Africa. I have photographed these birds in and around Delhi, and mostly after the rains in Bharatpur, Rajasthan where these birds nest.

Woolly-necked Stork at Surajpur Bird Sanctuary, Greater Noida, UP

These birds are hard to miss, given their characteristic woolly-neck that they are named for. Found in pairs and small flocks, the woolly-necked storks have a glistening green-black plumage with a black capped head, white neck and white under parts. The breast is glossy purple, red legs and a dark beak. They are also called Bishop Storks for their colors that resemble the vestments worn by the Christian clergy.

Bishop Storks at Keoladeo Bird Sanctuary, Bharatpur, Rajasthan

The woolly-necked storks have large wings and soar high on thermals. They fly with their necks outstretched as all storks do. They wade in shallow water and on the ground, catching their prey of fish, marine invertebrates, small amphibians, insects and even small reptiles.

They build nests made of sticks and twigs atop trees and the female lays a clutch of two to five eggs. With growing loss of habitat and decrease in numbers, these birds have been categorized as ‘vulnerable’ by IUCN.

Woolly-necked Storks in flight over tree tops at Bharatpur, Rajasthan

Black Stork

The Black Stork (Ciconia nigra) is a fairly large but secretive wading bird in the Stork family. It is found across temperate Europe and Asia, but is not very common. In the past two years of my weekly birding trips in India, I have come across them only once – a small flock of 5 or 6 birds on a pebbly riverbed at the Corbett Tiger Reserve, Uttarakhand in the foothills of the Himalayas during the winters. They are rather shy and took off when I stopped to take pictures.

These birds are strong migrants and fly to tropical Africa and India during the winters. In summers, they are resident in a geographical arc from Siberia and China in the East to Spain and Portugal in the west. These large birds weigh up to 3 kg, and stand about 100 cm tall, with a huge wing span of about 5 feet which help them soar on thermals and fly long distances over land. Their plumage is all black with a purple or greenish gloss, with some under-parts white in color. The long legs and beak are bright red in adults, especially during the breeding season. They also have a bright red patch around their eyes.

I was hoping to see their annual migration from Europe to Africa over the Bosphorus during my last visit to Istanbul, but missed it by a few weeks. The Black Storks found in northern and north-east India are usually from Siberia and northern China.

The Black Storks build their nests made of twigs on top trees or on craggy cliffs in central Europe. These storks are known to kill one of their nestlings, usually the weakest one, in times of food shortage to reduce the brood size and increase the chance of survival of the fitter ones.

These birds are categorized by IUCN as under Least Concern as their stocks are more or less stable across their habitat. All the images on this blog are photographed by me in Corbett Tiger Reserve, in January this year.

Asian Openbill Stork

Asian Openbill Stork or Asian Openbill (Anastomus oscitans) is a medium sized wading bird of the stork family found in India, Bangladesh, Srilanka, Myanmar and Thailand. The adult birds typically have a gap in their bill, which lends it their name. They are white in color, with a greyish tinge and black wings, with short yellowish legs.

Asian Openbill at Keoladeo Bird Sanctuary, Bharatpur

They are often sighted soaring, neck extended in flight like all storks, riding on thermals above large wetlands and water bodies, though rarely along rivers.

Asian Openbill, soaring above the Keoladeo Bird Sanctuary, Bharatpur

Asian Openbill taking off at the Keoladeo Bird Sanctuary, Bharatpur

The unique opening between the upper and lower mandible is more prominent among adults, while the young do not have any gap. This is thought to be an adaptation for extracting the contents of their favorite food – the snails that they seem to relish upon. The sharp end of the bill is inserted into the snail and the meat extracted, while the bill is still underwater.

Asian Openbill, at Surajpur Bird Sanctuary, Greater Noida

The Asian Openbill nests after the rainy season, between July to September in northern India and later in south India, when they form large mixed breeding colonies on top of trees along with other birds such as cormorants, darters, ibises, spoonbills and herons. The trees in the famous Keoladeo Bird Sanctuary come alive with hundreds of birds nesting, with hundreds more carrying out sorties, bringing home nesting material or food. They nest close to each other, which results in lot of loud jostling and flapping around the nesting sites. The nestlings are often preyed upon by eagles.

Carrying nesting material at Keoladeo Bird Sanctaury, Bharatpur

Nesting site at Keoladeo Bird Sanctuary, Bharatpur

These birds fly quite high, flapping and then gliding along air currents, and rapidly descending into their feeding areas. Groups of Openbill Storks forage in shallow wetlands, feeding on snails, and at times, frogs, water snakes and large insects.

Asian Openbill over the Keoladeo Bird Sanctuary, Bharatpur

Nearer Delhi, large nesting colonies of these Asian Openbill can be sighted during breeding season in Surajpur Wetlands in Greater Noida where they have earmarked certain palm trees for nesting every year where dozens of birds jostle for space.

Asian Openbill, at Keoladeo Bird Sanctuary, Bharatpur