Jabiru facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Jabiru |
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| Jabiru (Jabiru mycteria) | |
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Jabiru
Hellmayr, 1906
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J. mycteria
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| Jabiru mycteria (Lichtenstein, 1819)
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The Jabiru (Jabiru mycteria) is a large stork found in the Americas from Mexico to Argentina, except west of the Andes. It is most common in the Pantanal region of Brazil and the Eastern Chaco region of Paraguay. It is the only member of the genus Jabiru. The name comes from the Tupi-Guaraní language and means "swollen neck".
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Description
The Jabiru is the tallest flying bird found in South America, often standing around the same height as the flightless and much heavier American Rhea. The adult size of Jabirus ranges up to 1.5 m (5 ft) tall, 2.8 m (9.2 ft) across the wings, and a weight of at least 8 kg (17.6 lbs). The beak, up to 30 cm (1 foot) long, is black and broad, slightly upturned, ending in a sharp point. The plumage is mostly white, but the head and upper neck are featherless and black, with a featherless red stretchable pouch at the base. The sexes are similar, although the female is usually smaller than the male. While it is an ungainly bird on the ground, the Jabiru is a powerful and graceful flier.
Habits
The Jabiru lives in large groups near rivers and ponds, and eats prodigious quantities of fish, mollusks, and amphibians. It will occasionally eat reptiles and small mammals. It will even eat fresh carrion and dead fish, such as those that die during dry spells, and thus help maintain the quality of isolated bodies of water.
The nest of twigs is built by both parents around August & September (in the southern hemisphere) on tall trees, and enlarged at each succeeding season growing to several meters in diameter. Half a dozen nests may be built in close proximity, sometimes among nests of herons and other birds. The parents take turns incubating the clutch of 2 to 5 white eggs. When the jabiru is swimming its long neck is confused with the head of a snake.
Conservation
Jabiru are widespread but not abundant in any area. They are considered a species of least concern by the IUCN, an improvement from a status of near threatened in 1988. Jabiru gained protected status in Belize in 1973. Since then, their numbers in that area have slowly risen. They have been granted protected status by the U.S. Migratory Bird Act.
Images for kids
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Jabiru with a chick at the nest.
_on_nest.JPG)
_in_flight.JPG)
See also
In Spanish: Jabiru mycteria para niños
