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The Black stork (Ciconia nigra) is a large elegant wading bird that is widespread but uncommon species throught its native range. Black storks are long-distance migrants traveling on average between 37 and 80 days. During their long migration, they must cross the Mediterranean at the narrowest points, and many birds travel south through the Bosphorus, as well as the Sinai and Gibraltar.
The Black stork has long red legs, a long neck, and a long, straight, pointed red beak. The plumage is black with a purplish green sheen, except for the white lower breast, belly, armpits, axillaries, and undertail coverts. The breast feathers are long and shaggy, forming a ruff that is used in some courtship displays. The black stork has brown irises and bare red skin around its eyes. The sexes are identical in appearance, except that males are larger than females on average.
Molting takes place in spring, with the iridescent sheen brighter in new plumage. It walks slowly and steadily on the ground and like all storks, it flies with its neck outstretched. The juvenile resembles the adult in plumage, but the areas corresponding to the adult black feathers are browner and less glossy. The scapulars, wing, and upper tail coverts have pale tips. The legs, bill, and bare skin around the eyes are greyish-green. It could possibly be confused with the juvenile yellow-billed stork, but the latter has paler wings and mantle, a longer bill, and white under the wings.
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During the summer, Black storks are found from Eastern Asia (Siberia and northern China) west to Central Europe, reaching Estonia in the north, Poland, Lower Saxony and Bavaria in Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, and Greece in the south, with an outlying population in the central-southwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. Black storks are migratory and spend winters in tropical Africa and Asia; certain populations are sedentary or dispersive. There is also an isolated population in Southern Africa.
Black storks prefer to live in more wooded areas and breed in large marshy wetlands with interspersed coniferous or broadleaved woodlands. They are also found in hills and mountains with creeks nearby. They usually inhabit ponds, rivers, edges of lakes, estuaries, and other freshwater wetlands. Black storks prefer to stay far from areas inhabited by humans and although they occur in more agricultural areas in the Caspian lowlands, they try to avoid close contact with people.
