The Colorful Painted Stork
The bird which I am talking about is white, black, orange, pink and deep glossy green. Better than my describing it, please have a look yourself.
Getting water for the young ones…
This bird is the Painted Stork.
I have seen them make their rather large nests on the islands in waterbodies, mostly on thorny trees. They collect nesting material – generally thicker twigs so that the nest can bear their and their families’ weight. The place for the nest is chosen carefully as, being tall birds, they need enough headroom and also are able to fly in and out easily. The nesting material is then arranged neatly and the nest is generally large enough to accommodate both parents and usually two young ones.
The nests are strong enough for the entire family…
The young ones are white with black beaks and later turn greyish and the beaks change color to pale yellow.
The juveniles..
They make wonderful parents, get food and even carry water in their beaks for the young ones to drink. They are even known to shower the juniors to keep them cool. They also provide shade by using their large wings in a slightly unusual way like an umbrella.
Keeping the young ones in shade…
These are social birds. They migrate together, they feed together, make nests closer to each other on the neighbouring branches and their juveniles also stay together in nursery groups. One or two of the grown ups are generally always on the watch for the entire group while the rest of then go out to get food.
Feeding together…
These are migratory birds and they breed in India. I have still not been able to find out where they migrate to once the juveniles are ready to fly.
Threats:
They are already among the threatened birds of the world. I find that they are very sensitive to changes in their habitat due to human activities. I know of two such instances when the entire groups abandoned their nests completely and didn’t return, at-least for that season.
Thanks Aditya d your pics and very informative text. for sharing this very interesting bird, I had not seen before. Loved your pics and very informative text.
Thanks for your kind words. Painted Storks are found mostly in India and in some parts of Southeast Asia. They have gone extinct in some places.
Watching them is always a pleasure.
Beautiful photography, congratulations.
Am happy that you liked my pictures. Thank you for visiting.
They are absolutely beautiful. I love the pink feathers and legs, and the orange bill. It makes me so sad that we humans don’t care enough about threatened species.