This Blog contains Wildlife and Bird Photos from Walks, Safaris, Birding Trips and Vacations. Most of the pictures have been taken with my Nikon P900 and P950X cameras. On the right of the page are labels for each species. If you click on a label it will show all of the photos for that species. I am adding as much information as I can from sources such as Wikipedia. To see a larger picture just click on the picture.
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Showing posts with label SADDLE BILLED STORK (Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis). Show all posts
Showing posts with label SADDLE BILLED STORK (Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis). Show all posts
Thursday 24 March 2022
Sunday 21 November 2021
Tuesday 6 April 2021
Friday 11 September 2020
Sunday 16 February 2020
Saturday 4 January 2020
Thursday 24 October 2019
Saturday 13 July 2019
Friday 18 January 2019
Monday 19 November 2018
Thursday 3 May 2018
Wednesday 25 April 2018
Wednesday 28 February 2018
Sunday 4 February 2018
Friday 15 September 2017
Friday 23 December 2016
14-10-2015 VALENCIA BIOPARC - SADDLE BILLED STORK (Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis)
The saddle-billed stork or saddlebill (Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis ) is a large wading bird in the stork family, Ciconiidae. It is a widespread species which is a resident breeder in sub-Saharan Africa from Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya south to South Africa, and in The Gambia, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire and Chad in west Africa. It is considered endangered in South Africa.
It is a close relative of the widespread Asian and Australian black-necked stork, the only other member of the genus Ephippiorhynchus.
This is a huge bird that regularly attains a height of 145 to 150 cm (4 ft 9 in to 4 ft 11 in), a length of 142 cm (4 ft 8 in) and a 2.4 to 2.7 m (7 ft 10 in to 8 ft 10 in) wingspan. While heights published have been in the aforementioned narrow range, reportedly adult saddle-billed storks in captivity can attain a height of up to 150 to 180 cm (4 ft 11 in to 5 ft 11 in). The male of the species is larger and heavier than the female, with a range of 5.1–7.52 kg (11.2–16.6 lb), with a mean mass of 6.38 kg (14.1 lb). The female is usually between 5 and 6.84 kg (11.0 and 15.1 lb), with a mean mass of 5.95 kg (13.1 lb). Among the large storks, the saddle-billed broadly overlap in size with the two larger Leptoptilos and the Jabiru stork but possesses a longer, more slender neck and slightly longer legs than the other largest storks, so the saddle-billed is likely to be the tallest extant species of the family. Its extremely long legs measure up to 36.5 cm (14.4 in)) in tarsus length. The long bill measures from 27.3 to 36 cm (10.7 to 14.2 in). The sexes can be readily distinguished by the golden yellow irises of the female and the brown irises and dangling yellow wattles of the male. It is therefore one of the few storks to display sexual dimorphism in colour.
It is spectacularly plumaged; both the female and male appear identical when perched but the female shows much more white in the primaries in flight. The head, neck, back, wings, and tail are iridescent black, with the rest of the body and the primary flight feathers being white. Juveniles are browner grey in plumage. The massive bill is red with a black band and a yellow frontal shield (the "saddle"). The legs and feet are black with pink hocks. On the chest is a bare red patch of skin, whose colour darkens during breeding season.
At the continental scale, saddle-billed storks preferred protected areas that have a higher extent of open water compared to areas without the storks. Some of these trends may, however, be due to a bias in coverage by ornithologists of safer areas such as national parks and protected swamps that afford easier accessibility and comforts.
The saddle-billed stork, like most of its relatives, feeds mainly on fish, frogs and crabs, but also on large water beetles, small mammals, birds and reptiles. The birds move in a deliberate and stately manner as they hunt, in a similar way to the larger herons.
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