Yellowbilled Stork
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Nimmersat  Yellowbilled StorkMicteria ibis See also: Saddle-billed Stork , , and Openbilled Stork Kruger National Park |
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Description - The Yellowbilled Storks are easily recognizable by their all over white colour, red face and yellow beak. The legs are red, and primary feathers are black. The adult is a whitish bird with a long yellow bill. The juvenile is greyer with a duller bill. Both adult and juvenile have the bare patch on the face although this is more brightly coloured in the adult. Non-breeding adult has plumage and bare parts duller. Juvenile all dingy brown with dull green bare parts. Generally seen in groups (unless breeding), it has developed the technique of stirring up the water or mud with one foot to flush out prey.
Distribution - Found in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana (except desert regions), Namibia and eastern South Africa. Common resident in the north, rare summer visitor in the south. Not globally threatened.
Habitat - Generally prefers larger bodies of water, such as flood-plains, large rivers, lakes and estuaries usually near woodlands. To be found on the banks of lakes and rivers with slow running water and estuaries.
Biological - Height 95-100 cm, wingspan 155 cm, male larger. Usually in small groups or flock unless breeding. Feeds by wading and probing with half open bill beneath the water. Feeding is tactile: when the bill comes into contact with prey, it snaps shut on it immediately and the combination of this speed, its accompanying force and the sharp edges of the mandibles mean that prey once caught rarely escapes.
Diet - Crustaceans, small fish, frogs, shellfishes and worms, and other small aquatic prey.
Breeding - Breeds at the end of the rainy season. Nest: A platform of sticks lined with soft materials placed in a tree. Colonial tree-nester, often with other species. Nest made from smallish stick, up on trees. Clutch: 2-4 eggs. Both sexes incubate for about 30 days. Nestlings: 55 days. Chicks have pure white below. Parents regurgitate water over the young to keep them cool and to control their water intake. Sexual maturity at 3 year old.
Other names - D: Afrikanischer Nimmersatt - DK: Gulnæbbet stork - F: Tantale ibis, Tantale africain - ESP: Tántalo Africano - S: Tantalusstork, Afrikansk ibisstork - NL: Afrikaanse Nimmerzat - IT: Tantalo africano, Cicogna beccogiallo
References
Weblinks
http://www.oregonzoo.org/Cards/Rainforest/stork.yellow.billed.htm
More info about storks: http://www.wildwatch.com/resources/birds/storks.asp and
More info about storks: http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-stork.html
Books
Ian Sinclair et al. - Sasol birds of Southern Africa. Struik Publ. ISBN 1-86872-033-0
Kenneth Newman - Newman se voëls van Suider-Afrika. SAPPI. ISBN 1-868-12-758-3
Vincent Carruthers (ed.) - The Wildlife of Southern Africa. Struik Publ. ISBN 1-86872-451-4