The Oriental stork (''Ciconia boyciana''; Japanese: コウノトリ ''Konotori'') is a large, white bird with black wing feathers in the

stork Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long, stout bills. They belong to the family called Ciconiidae, and make up the order Ciconiiformes . Ciconiiformes previously included a number of other families, such as herons an ...

family Ciconiidae.

Taxonomy

The species was first described by

Robert Swinhoe Robert Swinhoe FRS (1 September 1836 – 28 October 1877) was an English diplomat and naturalist who worked as a Consul in Formosa. He catalogued many Southeast Asian birds, and several, such as Swinhoe's pheasant, are named after him. Bio ...

in 1873. It is closely related to and resembles the European white stork (''C. ciconia''), of which it was formerly often treated as a

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

Description

It is typically larger than the white stork, at long, tall, a weight of and a wingspan of .''CRC Handbook of Avian Body Masses'' by John B. Dunning Jr. (Editor). CRC Press (1992), Unlike its more widespread cousin, the Oriental stork has red skin around its eye, with a whitish iris and black bill. Both sexes are similar. The female is slightly smaller than male. The young are white with orange bills.

Distribution and habitat

The Oriental stork is found in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, Manchuria, Korea and Siberia. It was once extirpated from Japan and the Korean Peninsula. However, in May 2007 a hatchling was reported in Japan for the first time in 40 years in the wild. It was an offspring of two storks who were bred in captivity.Endangered white storks hatch egg
Steve Jackson, BBC News, 20 May 2007.

Conservation

Due to habitat loss and overhunting, the Oriental stork is classified as endangered on the

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biologi ...

. It is listed on Appendix I of CITES. There have been efforts to reintroduce the storks to the wild, but there must be changes to the environment first. The storks were harshly impacted by the growth of the rice industry and the subsequent use of

pesticide Pesticides are substances that are meant to control pests. This includes herbicide, insecticide, nematicide, molluscicide, piscicide, avicide, rodenticide, bactericide, insect repellent, animal repellent, microbicide, fungicide, and lampri ...

s. There is a push for rice farmers to grow their plants organically so that the storks may breed and grow safely in their environments.

Diet and behaviour

The Oriental stork is a solitary bird except during the breeding season. It likes to wade in marshes, pond's edges, coastal beaches, and other wetlands. These birds are apex predator in their habitat. Its diet consists mainly of fish, frog, insects, small birds and

reptiles Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the Class (biology), class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsid, sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, Squamata, squamates (lizar ...

, as well as

rodents 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 nat ...

Breeding

The female usually lays between two and six eggs. After breeding, the storks migrate to eastern China in September and return in March.

References

External links

* ARKive
Images and movies of the Oriental stork (''Ciconia boyciana'')

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20071106163313/http://www.rdb.or.id/detailbird.php?id=284 Red Data Book
BBC News bulletin about the birth of a chick in Japan

{{Authority control Ciconia Birds of East Asia Birds described in 1873