__NOTOC__ ''Ciconia'' ( ; ) is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of birds in the stork family. Six of the seven living species occur in the Old World, but the

maguari stork The maguari stork (''Ciconia maguari'') is a large species of stork that inhabits seasonal wetlands over much of South America, and is very similar in appearance to the white stork; albeit slightly larger.King CE. 1988. An ethological comparison ...

has a South American range. In addition,

fossil 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 ...

s suggest that ''Ciconia'' storks were somewhat more common in the tropical Americas in prehistoric times. The genus was introduced by the French zoologist

Mathurin Jacques Brisson Mathurin Jacques Brisson (; 30 April 1723 – 23 June 1806) was a French zoologist and natural philosopher. Brisson was born at Fontenay-le-Comte. The earlier part of his life was spent in the pursuit of natural history; his published works ...

in 1760 with the

white stork The white stork (''Ciconia ciconia'') is a large bird in the stork family, Ciconiidae. Its plumage is mainly white, with black on the bird's wings. Adults have long red legs and long pointed red beaks, and measure on average from beak tip to e ...

(''Ciconia ciconia'') as 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 ...

. The genus name is the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

word for "stork", and was originally recorded in the works of Horace and

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

. The

Abdim's stork Abdim's stork (''Ciconia abdimii''), also known as the white-bellied stork, is a stork belonging to the family Ciconiidae. It is the smallest species of stork, feeds mostly on insects, and is found widely in open habitats in Sub-Saharan Africa a ...

is the smallest of the family, but other species in the genus are generally medium-sized storks, with long legs and a long thick bill. The members of this genus are more variable in plumage than other stork genera, but all species are black (at least to the wings) and white (at least underparts or neck). Juveniles are a duller, browner version of the adult. Depending on species, breeding can be in solitary pairs or

colonies In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state'' ...

. Pairs usually stay together for life. They typically build large stick nests in trees, although the Abdim's stork sometimes will nest on cliffs, the

will nest on the ground and at least three species will construct their nests on human habitations. One of these, the

, is probably the best known of all storks, with a wealth of legend and folklore associated with this familiar summer visitor to Europe. These storks 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 ...

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group can ...

s, small 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 fly with the neck outstretched, like most other storks, but unlike herons which retract their neck in flight. The migratory species like the white stork and the

black stork The black stork (''Ciconia nigra'') is a large bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his ''Systema Naturae''. Measuring on average from beak tip to end of tail with a wingspan, th ...

soar on broad wings and rely on thermals of hot air for sustained long distance flight. Since thermals only form over land, these storks, like large raptors, must cross the Mediterranean at the narrowest points, and many of these birds can be seen going through the Straits of Gibraltar and the Bosphorus on migration.

Species

Extant species

The genus contains seven extant species:

Fossils

The

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 the genus is extensive, indicating that ''Ciconia'' storks were once more widespread than they are today. Although the known material tends to suggest that the genus evolved around the Atlantic, possibly in western Europe or Africa, the comparative lack of fossil sites in Asia makes this assumption not well-founded presently. All that can be said is that by the Early

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Northern Hemisphere. Fossil members of the genus include: *''

Ciconia louisebolesae '' Ciconia louisebolesae '' is an extinct species of stork from the Early Miocene of Australia. It was described by Walter Boles from fossil material found in a cave deposit at the Bitesantennary Site of Riversleigh, in the Boodjamulla Nationa ...

'' (Early Miocene of Riversleigh, Australia) *?''

Ciconia minor __NOTOC__ ''Ciconia'' ( ; ) is a genus of birds in the stork family. Six of the seven living species occur in the Old World, but the maguari stork has a South American range. In addition, fossils suggest that ''Ciconia'' storks were somewhat mor ...

'' (Early Miocene of Rusinga Island, Kenya) *?'' Ciconia sarmatica'' (Late Miocene of Credinţa, Romania) *?'' Ciconia gaudryi'' (Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Pikermi, Greece) *''Ciconia'' sp. 1 (Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Lee Creek Mine, the United States) *''Ciconia'' sp. 2 (Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Lee Creek Mine, the United States) *?'' Ciconia kahli'' (Early Pliocene of South Africa) *'' Ciconia lucida'' (Mongolian stork), (Middle Pliocene of Mongolia) *''

Ciconia maltha ''Ciconia maltha'', also known as the asphalt stork or La Brea stork, is an extinct stork from the Late Pliocene – Late Pleistocene of United States (California, Oregon, Idaho and Florida), Cuba and Bolivia. It has been found in the La Brea Tar ...

'' (asphalt stork or La Brea stork), (Late Pliocene – Late Pleistocene of the western and southern United States, Cuba and Bolivia) *'' Ciconia stehlini'' (Late Pliocene – Early Pleistocene of Hungary) – may belong to extant species *'' Ciconia nana'' (Australian stork) – (Early to Middle Pliocene, Late Pleistocene of Australia) – formerly ''Xenorhynchus'' *''Ciconia'' sp. (Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene of Las Breas de San Felipe, Cuba) A distal

radius In classical geometry, a radius ( : radii) of a circle or sphere is any of the line segments from its center to its perimeter, and in more modern usage, it is also their length. The name comes from the latin ''radius'', meaning ray but also the ...

in Late Pleistocene deposits of San Josecito Cavern (Mexico) may belong in this genus or in ''

Mycteria ''Mycteria'' is a genus of large tropical storks with representatives in the Americas, east Africa and southern and southeastern Asia. Two species have " ibis" in their scientific or old common names, but they are not related to these birds ...

''; it is smaller than that of any known American stork, ''Ciconia'' or otherwise. The proposed fossil genus '' Prociconia'' from

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, also of Late Pleistocene age, may be a junior synonym of either this genus or ''

Jabiru The jabiru ( or ; ''Jabiru mycteria'') is a large stork found in the Americas from Mexico to Argentina, except west of the Andes. It sometimes wanders into the United States, usually in Texas, but has been reported as far north as Mississippi. ...

''. A distal tarsometatarsus found in a rock shelter on Réunion was probably of a bird taken there as food by early settlers; no known account mentions the presence of storks on the

Mascarenes The Mascarene Islands (, ) or Mascarenes or Mascarenhas Archipelago is a group of islands in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar consisting of the islands belonging to the Republic of Mauritius as well as the French department of Réunion. Thei ...

, and while this subfossil was initially believed to be from a stork, it is today assigned to the

Réunion ibis The Réunion ibis or Réunion sacred ibis (''Threskiornis solitarius'') is an extinct species of ibis that was endemic to the volcanic island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. The first subfossil remains were found in 1974, and the ibis was firs ...

(''Threskiornis solitarius'') which is quite similar to storks osteologically and was not yet described when the bone was discovered (Cowles, 1994).

References

External links

* ARKive
images and movies of ''Ciconia boyciana''

Ciconia videos
on Internet Bird Collection:
Ecological education through live white storks' nest webcam observation
{{Authority control Bird genera

Species

Extant species

Fossils

References

Further reading

External links