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.