''Leptoptilos'' is a genus of very large tropical storks, also known as the adjutant bird. The name means thin (''lepto'') feather (''ptilos''). Two species are resident breeders in southern

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

, and the marabou stork is found in Sub-Saharan Africa. These are huge

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

s, typically 110–150 cm tall with a 210–250 cm wingspan. The three species each have a black upper body and wings, and white belly and undertail. The head and neck are bare like those of a

vulture A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including Condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to North and ...

. The huge

bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Plac ...

is long and thick. Juveniles are a duller, browner version of the adult. ''Leptoptilos'' storks are gregarious colonial breeders in

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...

s, building large stick

nest A nest is a structure built for certain animals to hold eggs or young. Although nests are most closely associated with birds, members of all classes of vertebrates and some invertebrates construct nests. They may be composed of organic materi ...

s in trees. They feed on

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" ''Triadobatrachus'' is ...

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three ...

s, young birds, lizards and

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are n ...

s. They are frequent scavengers, and the naked head and neck are adaptations to this, as are those of the vultures with which they often feed. A feathered head would become rapidly clotted with

blood Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood in the cir ...

and other substances when a scavenging bird's head was inside a large corpse, and the bare head is easier to keep clean. Most storks fly with neck outstretched, but the three ''Leptoptilos'' storks retract their necks in flight like a heron.

Taxonomy and species

The genus ''Leptoptilos'' was introduced in 1831 by the French naturalist René Lesson. The genus name combines the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

''leptos'' meaning "delicate" or "slender" with ''ptilon'' meaning "feather". The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...

was subsequently designated as the greater adjutant by

George Robert Gray George Robert Gray FRS (8 July 1808 – 6 May 1872) was an English zoologist and author, and head of the ornithological section of the British Museum, now the Natural History Museum, in London for forty-one years. He was the younger brother ...

. The genus contains three extant species.

Fossils

There is an ample

fossil record A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

of this genus. Many fossils members of the genus were much larger than living species, standing as tall as a man, with the earliest being '' Leptoptilos falconeri'' from the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Late Pleistocene on the Southeast Asian islands of Java (''L''. ''titan'') and Flores ( ''L''. ''robustus''). *†'' Leptoptilos falconeri'' (Early to Late Pliocene of south Asia and east Africa) *†'' Leptoptilos indicus'' (Late Pliocene of

Siwalik The Sivalik Hills, also known as the Shivalik Hills and Churia Hills, are a mountain range of the outer Himalayas that stretches over about from the Indus River eastwards close to the Brahmaputra River, spanning the northern parts of the Indi ...

, India) – formerly ''Cryptociconia indica'', may be the same as ''L. falconeri'' (Louchart ''et al.'' 2005) *†''

Leptoptilos lüi ''Leptoptilos lüi'' is an extinct species of large-bodied Leptoptilini stork that existed during the Middle Pleistocene. Along with ''Aegypius jinniushanensis'', ''L. lüi'' is one of several new species of extinct birds discovered at Jinniusha ...

'' (

Middle Pleistocene The Chibanian, widely known by its previous designation of Middle Pleistocene, is an age in the international geologic timescale or a stage in chronostratigraphy, being a division of the Pleistocene Epoch within the ongoing Quaternary Period. Th ...

Jinniushan Jinniushan () is a Middle Pleistocene paleoanthropological site, dating to around 260,000 BP, most famous for its archaic hominin fossils. The site is located near Yingkou, Liaoning, China. Several new species of extinct birds were also discovere ...

, Liaoning, China) *†'' Leptoptilos patagonicus'' (Puerto Madryn Late Miocene of

Valdés Peninsula The Valdes Peninsula (Spanish: ''Península Valdés'') is a peninsula into the Atlantic Ocean in the Biedma Department of north-east Chubut Province, Argentina. Around in size (not taking into account the isthmus of Carlos Ameghino which connect ...

, Argentina) *†'' Leptoptilos pliocenicus'' (Early Pliocene of Odessa, Ukraine and Urugus, Ethiopia to Late Pliocene of

Koro Toro Koro Toro is a settlement in southern Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti Region in Chad. It hosts the Koro Toro Airport and a "notorious" maximum security desert prison used by the Chadian government to detain captured fighters of Boko Haram and Chadian rebel ...

, Chad and Olduvai, Tanzania) – includes ''L.'' cf. ''falconeri'', may be the same as ''L. falconeri'' *†'' Leptoptilos richae'' (Beglia Late Miocene of Bled ed Douarah, Tunisia, and Wadi Moghara, Egypt?) *†''

Leptoptilos robustus ''Leptoptilos robustus'' (from reek: thin, slender+ reek: soft featherand atin: strong is an extinct species of large-bodied stork belonging to the genus '' Leptoptilos'' that lived on the island of Flores in Indonesia during the Pleistocen ...

'' (Pleistocene, Flores, Indonesia) *†'' Leptoptilos titan'' (Notopuro Middle/Late Pleistocene of Watualang, Java, Indonesia) *†''Leptoptilos'' sp. (

Ngorora Formation The Ngorora Formation is a geological formation in Kenya preserving fossils dating to the Miocene. The uppermost member of the formation shows sign of a faunal turnover that occurred around 11 to 10.5 million years ago, coinciding with faunal cha ...

Late Miocene of

Baringo District Baringo County is one of the 47 counties in Kenya. It is located in the former Rift Valley Province. Its headquarters and largest town is Kabarnet. The county is home to Lake Baringo. Geographical location Baringo bounded by Turkana County and ...

, Kenya: Louchart ''et al.'' 2005) †'' Leptoptilos siwalicensis'' from the

deposits (Late Miocene? to Late Pliocene) may belong to this genus or to a closely related one (Louchart ''et al.'' 2005).

In culture

The adjutant bird features in the arms of Baron Sinha. In the satirical French puppet show '' Le Bébête Show'',

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing Valéry René Marie Georges Giscard d'Estaing (, , ; 2 February 19262 December 2020), also known as Giscard or VGE, was a French politician who served as President of France from 1974 to 1981. After serving as Minister of Finance under prime ...

was, for a time, depicted as a ''Leptoptilos''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q577346 Bird genera Taxa described in 1831 Taxa named by René Lesson