Abdim's Stork
Ciconia abdimii
A medium-sized, dark stork with a white belly. This gregarious African migrant often appears in huge nomadic flocks numbering in the thousands, normally in response to heavy rains or large fires, after which they forage on insect emergences. It prefers open grassland and woodland but also uses wetland margins and fields. Could be confused with the more solitary Black Stork, but Abdim’s Stork is smaller, has a white rump, and has a green-gray (not red) bill and dull (not bright red) legs.
Identification
Ciconia abdimii is a black stork with grey legs, red knees and feet, grey bill and white underparts. It has red facial skin in front of the eye and blue skin near the bill in breeding season. It is the smallest species of stork, at 73 cm (29 in) and a weight of just over 1 kg (2.2 lb).
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Ciconia abdimii
- Authority
- Lichtenstein, MHC, 1823
- Order
- Ciconiiformes
- Family
- Ciconiidae
- Genus
- Ciconia
Range and habitat
Abdim's stork is found widely in open habitats throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, from the Sahel to South Africa, being absent mainly from forests, dense woodlands and deserts. A smaller populations occurs in Yemen. It breeds colonially in trees, on cliffs or rooftops in the northern half of its range (north of the Equator) during the wet season from May to August, migrating to eastern and southern Africa for the remainder of the year. This stork has escaped or been deliberately released into Florida, U.S., but there is no evidence that the population is breeding and may only persist due to continuing releases or escapes.[1] Archived 2018-12-13 at the Wayback Machine<p>Widespread and common throughout its large range, Abdim's stork is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is the subject of several nationally coordinated breeding programs: in the United States, the plan for this species is administered by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and in Europe by the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria.
- Breeding range
- AF, PAL : Senegal to Ethiopia and sw Arabian Pen. (primarily w Yemen)
- Non-breeding range
- e, s Africa, Oman
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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