Storks, Ibises, Spoonbills, & Flamingoes
View allAll Photos Tagged storks
das Nest muß ausgebessert werden, die beiden Kleinen sollen sicher sein
auf unserem Stellplatz im Spreewald konnten wir sie beobachten, leider hat sich der Nachwuchs kaum gezeigt
Some storks are like garbage men. They eat dead or dying animals and keep the area clean.
Storks are heavy birds. They can’t fly very far by flapping their wings ...
Storks make huge nests in trees, on cliffs, on roofs or even on the tops of telephone poles ...
Storks can’t sing the way most birds can. They can hiss or screech ...
Texture by Lenabem-Anna J.
The wood stork (Mycteria americana) is a large American wading bird in the family Ciconiidae (storks). During the dry season, the wood stork eats mostly fish, supplemented by insects. During the wet season, on the other hand, fish make up about half the diet, crabs make up about 30%, and insects and frogs make up the rest.
Belize, Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary
Please don't use my images without my permission. All images © Aivar Mikko.
a medium-size stork with a wide distribution in Asia and in Africa. It can be found in different aquatic habitats such as wet or flooded grasslands, marshes, riverine areas and in irrigated fields.
also called Bishop's Stork or White-necked Stork
ciconia episcopus
bisschopsooievaar
cigogne épiscopale
Wollhalsstorch
Panna Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh, India
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It was very windy and fast changing weather and light along the cliffs. However, I got a bit lucky with the babies which I will post later.
Nikkor F=300mm 1:4 ED
Western Alentejo, Portugal
November 2022
Nature takes its course.
The Precursors of Spring have returned.
Storks usually migrate back from their winter quarters in Spain, the Mediterranean and North Africa in March.
There are more and more white storks in Baden-Württemberg - also because many stop taking the dangerous trip to Africa in winter.
Here in Germany’s southwest -as well as in the nearby Alsace (France)-
storks have always been celebrated as good-luck symbols, heraldic coat of arms motifs, all-around fabulous creatures, certainly much more than just quaint and interesting flying beasts.
Due to COVID-19, the borders between Germany and France are closed...
I live very close to the Alsace region I like so very much.
The Southern Alsace is heavily hit by the Pandemic too,
Sending my best wishes to our neighbours.
Prenez soin de vous, tous mes amis français ♥
Fact is, for centuries, people have felt fortunate to have storks nesting on their roofs. At that time people believed that they protect the house from fire, lightning and other natural and even man-made disasters. Storks tend to return to the same nesting place often with the same partner, year after year!
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Many thanks for your kind visit, dear friends.
Take care, stay healthy everyone.
Flying on and off to prepare the nest with leaves.
Thank you for your visits, kind comments and faves!
The white stork (Ciconia ciconia) is a large bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. Its plumage is mainly white, with black on its 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 Wood Storks seem to be moving in everywhere.
See the comments for a portrait shot.
From the Florida Wildlife Commission:
Wood storks are about 35-45 inches in length with a wing span of about 60-65 inches. The plumage is white except for iridescent (you can see that in the photo above) or glimmering black feathers along the entire wing and tail. The head and upper neck of adult storks do not have feathers, but are covered with a rough, scaly skin that is gray-colored. The legs and bill are a black tone but the toes have a pink hue. Unlike herons, storks fly and soar with the neck and legs extended.
Whereas nestling storks utter a variety of calls and sounds, adult storks are nearly voiceless and make only hissing sounds. However, the stork will produce a loud sound by snapping their bills during courtship or aggressive behaviors.
Wood storks are highly social in their nesting habits, often nesting in large colonies of 100-500 nests. (Note – the most I’ve seen in one place is at Harris Neck NWR in Georgia) Historically, there were reports of stork colonies estimated to be as large as 1,200-5,000 nests in the Big Cypress and Everglades of south Florida. Wood storks feed mostly on fish, in water between 2-15 inches in depth, where the water is calm and uncluttered by aquatic vegetation.
Storks have a very specialized tactile foraging behavior whereby they move their partially-opened bill through the water in a side-to-side motion, often using their feet to rake or scare up aquatic prey. Once the bill detects a fish, the bill is snapped shut in one of the quickest reflex reactions among animals. Locating prey using tactile location allows storks to forage in muddy water but requires a relatively high prey density to be effective. Thus, storks tend to forage in wetlands that have long annual wet periods followed by drying conditions to concentrate prey during the spring and early summer months for successful breeding seasons.
Historically, wood storks were a common species throughout the southeastern United States. However, precipitous declines in stork range and populations occurred during the first half of the 1900s because of the stork's specialized foraging attribute and the loss of wetlands used for foraging, especially in south Florida. Ultimately, the United States population was listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1984 and by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) in 1988. While the number of stork nests and colonies in Georgia and South Carolina appeared to increase during the 1980s and 1990s, storks still experience continued nesting related problems in Florida, especially south Florida. Recently, storks have established a colony in North Carolina.
The success of wood stork fledging, or the process in which a bird grows to be independent of its parents, often is variable among different years and colonies suggesting food resources are the likely factor in differences in nestling survivorship and fledging rates. Based on statewide surveys conducted by FWC personnel, stork colonies increased from 32 colonies during 1976-78 to 52 colonies during 1986-87, but decreased to 34 colonies in 1999. The most recent survey indicated about 7,216 nesting pairs in Florida during 2005.
Wood stork
No post-processing done to photo. Nikon NEF (RAW) files available. NPP Straight Photography at noPhotoShopping.com
The white stork (Ciconia ciconia) is a large bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. Its plumage is mainly white, with black on its 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.
Hello Everyone,
I enjoyed this visit !
Come back again , I said
What a beautiful stork !
Happy New week
greetings Caroline and the farm animals
Two young white storks fight for a snake that Mom or Dad has just regurgitated...
White Stork nesting, Dombes, Département de l'Ain, Région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France
Wood stork
No post-processing done to photo, only cropped. Nikon NEF (RAW) files available. NPP Straight Photography at noPhotoShopping.com
Beautiful stork watching people and cars go by from uptop his nest. They are common birds seen in the Algarve, Portugal.
Wood stork.
No post-processing done to photo, only cropped. Nikon NEF (RAW) files available. NPP Straight Photography at noPhotoShopping.com
From the American Bird Conservancy -
The Wood Stork has many folk names, including Wood Ibis (due to its downcurved, ibis-like bill) and flinthead (for its scaly-looking bare head). The word "wood" probably refers to the bird's favored nesting habitat in lowland wetlands.
This is North America's only breeding stork, and the U.S. population is now federally listed as Threatened, downlisted from Endangered in 2014 due to some population recovery. However, like the Snail Kite, Wood Storks face continuing threats from habitat degradation and invasive species.
Wood Stork are widespread and fairly common throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, although populations there are also probably declining for similar reasons.
Florida holds the largest nesting population of Wood Storks in the United States. Canals, irrigation, and other water control projects have long affected the flow and path of the water channeling into the Everglades, the stronghold of this species.
Raccoons are major Wood Stork nest predators in the Everglades, particularly when drought allows them easy access to colonies. Invasive plants and animals, especially the exploding population of escaped pythons, pose a serious threat to habitat and birds.
In addition, pesticides and mercury accumulating in water and fish can kill adult storks.
These social storks nest colonially, with up to 25 nests in one tree. Pairs often mate for life.
In Florida, Wood Storks breed during the late winter dry season, when their fish prey are concentrated in shrinking pools. They regularly fly up to 12 miles from the nesting colony while foraging and will go much farther during droughts in search of food.
Wood Storks have a specialized style of feeding, relying on touch to catch fish. A group feeds by slowly wading through the water with open bills; when a bird's bill touches a fish, it quickly snap it shut to secure the meal.
Although not considered true migrants, juvenile Wood Storks disperse northward after the breeding season, and adults move in response to food availability. They are impressive fliers, with flocks soaring as high as 6,000 feet on warm air thermals.
From the photographer - I've seen many hundreds in the air at once riding thermals at Harris Neck NWR.
Explored.
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