Painted stork

The orange head is bare and featherless, turning red during the breeding season. The orange-yellow beak is thick and long, but the tip of the beak is slightly curved downward, which is obviously different from the stork species such as the white stork and the black stork. The whole body is white. The chest has a broad black horizontal band. The front half of the head is bare and featherless, and is orange. The beak is orange-yellow, long and thick, with the tip curved downward, and the feet are also very long and red, and the lower part of the shank is bare.
Males and females are similar. The upper body of the adult bird is white, the primary flight feathers, the outer secondary flight feathers and the tail feathers are black, with a green metallic luster; the inner secondary flight feathers and tertiary flight feathers are light reddish white, with pink feather edges and tips; the small coverts and middle coverts are black, with a green metallic luster and a broad white feather edg

Mainly distributed from India to southwest China and Indochina.
Origin: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam.
Possibly extinct: China; introduced: Singapore; migratory bird: Malaysia.
In China, it is distributed in the coastal areas of Hebei, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Fujian, Guangdong, Hainan, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Tibet. In addition, it is also found in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Most of them are resident birds or summer migrants.
The white-headed stork mainly inhabits the shallow waters of the shores of freshwater waters such as lakes, rivers, and ponds, as well as nearby swamps and grasslands. It also often appears in farmland and cultivated land during the non-breeding season, and occasionally appears on the coastal seashore and saline-alkali land. Nesting in trees near waters or near towns.

Painted Stork is also known as White-headed Stork in English. There is no subspecies differentiation.

White-headed Stork usually breeds in groups in water and bushes. It feeds by the waterside of ponds, lakes and rivers. It moves slowly. During the day, it often stands in one place for a long time with its neck shrunk, looking very lazy. Sometimes they stroll leisurely in the swamps and grasslands to find food.

The white-headed stork mainly feeds on fish, but also eats other animal foods such as frogs, reptiles, crustaceans and insects, and occasionally eats a small amount of plant food. Usually they forage in pairs or small groups in shallow water near the water, and often in large groups when food is abundant in the rainy season. When foraging, they often walk slowly in shallow water near the water, with their mouths half open, moving their feet in the water or mud while exploring, flapping their wings to disturb their potential prey, and sometimes moving their mouths back and forth in the water to find food. After eating, they often stand on one leg on the shore to rest, with their bodies hunched over.

The young birds of the white-headed stork make quacking sounds and their mouths make clacking sounds.

Most white-headed storks are resident birds, and some populations also spread and wander locally after the breeding season to find suitable places to forage. They often breed in groups, and sometimes breed together with other storks, ibises, herons or cormorants. The breeding season varies from region to region. In China, it is mainly from May to July, and in India, it is from June to October, which is often related to the rainy season.

White-headed storks usually nest on trees near the water or on high bushes. Sometimes several pairs or even more than 10 pairs nest on the same tree. The nests are very close to each other, and the male and female birds share the responsibility of nesting. The male bird is mainly responsible for transporting nesting materials, and the female bird is responsible for building the nest. Nesting activities are mostly in the morning and afternoon. Usually the male bird transports nesting materials 5-6 times per hour. Each nest takes about 4-8 days to build. It also often uses old nests, especially when there is no interference. Usually the old nest can be used after a little repair. The shape of the nest is disc-shaped, with a loose and rough structure. It is mainly composed of dead branches, grass stems and grass leaves. The center is slightly concave. There is nothing in the nest, or only a few leaves and straw. The size of the nest is 50-80 cm in diameter.

Each nest lays 2-5 eggs, usually 3-4 eggs. The color of the eggs is dark white, sometimes with sparse brown spots and stripes. After the first egg is laid, incubation begins, and the male and female birds participate in incubation and chicks. The incubation period is about 28-32 days.

The chicks are late-maturing. When they are just hatched, they are covered with white down feathers. The parents forage for food together and feed them. When it is hot, the parents will open their wings from time to time to block the scorching sun for the chicks. After 60 days of feeding by the parents, the chicks have the ability to fly and can leave the nest. However, some chicks still return to the nest and continue to ask for food from the parents until 115 days old, although they can forage for food independently and live mainly on their own. Usually, the chicks will have the same feathers as the adults in the third year, and they will reach sexual maturity in the fourth year. Its lifespan can reach up to 28 years.

The white-headed stork is a wetland water bird. As a summer migratory bird, it has been widely distributed in China in history, especially in the area south of the Yangtze River. Every summer, many storks will flock to freshwater wetlands in Guangdong, Yunnan and other places to forage and breed. As early as 130 years ago (1892), the Frenchman John Digues de La Touche recorded the white-headed stork in Shantou, which was also the first record of this species in Guangdong.

Due to various reasons, since the 1950s, there have been few records of white-headed storks in China, so it is presumed to be extinct in China. However, it was discovered again in Guizhou in 2008. In early June of that year, researchers found 13 white-headed storks in the Caohai National Nature Reserve in Guizhou. In recent years, sporadic records of white-headed storks have been made in Dongguan, Huidong, Lufeng and Haifeng, Guangdong, mostly from March to April. Experts believe that follow-up monitoring and research is still needed on the distribution changes, population size and habitat selection of white-headed storks.

On March 12, 2022, bird-watching enthusiasts photographed a large wading bird with a white head and an orange-yellow beak in Maoming, Guangdong. Experts identified the bird as a national first-class key protected wild bird, the white-headed stork.

There are still about 5,000 white-headed storks in India and other South Asian regions. Globally near-threatened. It was considered a common bird in the 1930s, but it was already rare in 1987. It is recorded that summer migratory birds are distributed in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and from southern China to southern Yunnan. The white-headed stork was quite common in many parts of China in the early 20th century, but it is rarely seen now. Due to the drainage of swamps into farmland, deforestation, and human interference such as eating bird eggs and hunting, the population has clearly shown a trend of decreasing year by year, and there has been no news for more than 50 years.

Listed in the "Red List of Endangered Species of the World Conservation Union" (IUCN) 2016 ver 3.1-Near Threatened (NT).

Listed in the first level of China's "National Key Protected Wildlife List" (February 5, 2021).

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