African woolly-necked stork facts for kids
The African woolly-necked stork or African woollyneck (Ciconia microscelis) is a large wading bird from the stork family Ciconiidae. You can find it in many different places across Africa, like marshes in forests, farms, and wetlands. These storks usually breed alone or in small groups.
Quick facts for kids African woolly-necked stork |
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| In kwaZulu-Natal, South Africa | |
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Genus: |
Ciconia
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| Species: |
microscelis
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| Subspecies | |
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Ciconia episcopus microscelis GR Gray, 1848 |
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Contents
About the African Woolly-necked Stork
What's in a Name?
For a long time, people thought the African woolly-necked stork was just a type of Asian woolly-necked stork. But in 2023, bird experts decided it was its own special species. They noticed it lived in different places and looked quite different from its Asian cousin.
How to Spot One
The African woolly-necked stork is a medium-sized stork. It stands about 75 to 92 centimeters (30 to 36 inches) tall. Its eyes are a deep red color.
Most of its body is a shiny black. It has a black "skull cap" on its head. Its neck is fluffy and white, which is how it got its name. The lower part of its belly and the feathers under its tail are also white. This white color stands out against its dark body.
The feathers on its front neck can look shimmery with a purple-copper shine. These feathers are long and can stand up when the bird is showing off. Its tail is deeply split and white, but it's usually hidden by long black feathers. It has long red legs and a thick, dark bill. Some storks have bills that are mostly dark red with a black base.
Male and female storks look very similar. Young storks look a bit duller than adults. Their forehead has feathers, sometimes with black and white streaks. African storks have a black cap that looks a bit blurry or jagged at the edges. Asian storks have a much sharper cap line.
When the stork opens its wings, you can see a bright, unfeathered band of skin underneath. This band is often described as "neon orange-red" or "almost glowing."
Baby Storks
Baby storks are light gray with soft, light brown fluff on their necks. They have a black crown on their heads. When they are old enough to fly, young storks look just like adults. The main differences are a feathered forehead, less shiny feathers, and longer, fluffier neck feathers. Newly flying young birds also have a clear white mark on their forehead. This helps tell them apart from older storks.
Where They Live
Home Sweet Home
The African woolly-necked stork lives in many warm parts of western, eastern, and south-central Africa. They build their nests in trees on farms or near wetlands. They also nest on natural cliffs and even on cell phone towers!
They like many kinds of freshwater wetlands. These include seasonal ponds, marshes, farmlands, irrigation canals, and rivers. They are often seen near fires in grasslands or fields. Here, they catch insects trying to escape the flames. They also use ponds and marshes inside forests. Some storks on the coast of Kenya look for food in coral reefs and muddy areas. In KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, some storks are used to people feeding them. They even nest on non-native trees in suburban areas.
Stork Behavior
Sounds and Flight
Adult storks make different sounds. They have a two-part whistle they use when showing off at the nest. They also make a loud hissing sound if they feel threatened.
The African woolly-necked stork is a soaring bird. This means it uses warm air currents to fly long distances without flapping its wings much. Like all storks, it flies with its neck stretched out straight. People have also seen them "roll, tumble, and dive at steep angles" in the air. The wind through their feathers makes a loud noise. Adult storks have also been seen diving from their nests before flying away quickly, almost like a bat.
Social Life
You usually see these storks alone, in pairs, or in small family groups of four or five. While large groups are not common, they do happen in all areas where the storks live. Flocking depends on different things in different places. In dry areas, most flocks appear in summer when there are fewer wet places left. In areas with more water, flocks mostly happen in winter after the young birds have left their nests.
What They Eat
The African woolly-necked stork walks slowly and steadily on the ground to find its food. Like most storks, it eats amphibians, reptiles, and insects. In suburban South Africa, baby storks were mostly fed guttural toads. But they also ate common river frogs, fish, snakes, crabs, and moles. Even though people gave adult storks extra food, the baby storks still ate mostly natural animal species.
It was also seen that more than two adult birds fed the chicks in one nest in South Africa. This was the first time cooperative behavior was seen in woolly-necked storks. Sadly, two baby storks died because they were fed processed foods that people gave to the adult birds.
Building a Family
Storks usually build a large nest out of sticks in a tree. They lay two to six eggs, though five or six eggs are less common. They use trees in forests and scattered trees in farm areas for their nests. In India, some nests have been seen on cell phone towers in or near cities. However, building nests on human-made structures is not common. Sometimes, they also nest on cliffs near rivers.
In South Africa, African woolly-necked storks often nested in suburban gardens. They mostly chose non-native trees like Pinus elliottii and Eucalyptus trees. Very few nests were built on native trees. A few nests were also built on human structures, like a rooftop, a special nest box, and an electric pole.
Storks often reuse their nest sites for many years. More than 44% of nest sites were used again. Studies in South Africa show that the woolly-necked stork does not always need to build its nest right next to wetlands. This is different from other stork species.
Protecting the Stork
The African woolly-necked stork is part of an important agreement called the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA). This agreement helps protect birds that migrate (travel) between Africa and Eurasia.
