Ciconia nigra

The sexes of the black stork are similar. The adult bill is long and straight, thick at the base, tapering toward the tip. The nostrils are small and slit-shaped. The outer vanes of the second and fourth primary flight feathers are notched. The tail is relatively round, with 12 tail feathers. The legs are very long, the lower part of the shanks are bare, the base of the front toes is webbed, and the claws are blunt and short. The head, neck, upper body and upper chest are black, and the neck has a bright green sheen. The back, shoulders and wings have a purple and bronze sheen, and the chest also has a purple and green sheen. The feathers on the lower part of the front neck are extended to form a rather fluffy neck collar, and can stand upright during courtship and when the surrounding temperature is low. The lower chest, abdomen, flanks and undertail coverts are white. The iris is brown or black, the bill is red with a lighter tip, and the bare skin around the eyes and feet are also r

Resident: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and Ukraine.
Breeding: Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Russia (Europe) and Sweden.
Migrant: Cyprus, Denmark and Gibraltar.
Wandering: Finland, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Norway and the United Kingdom.
In China, it breeds in the Tarim River Basin in Xinjiang, the Tianshan Mountains, the Altai Mountains, the Junggar Basin and the Eastern Basin, Xining in Qinghai, the Qilian Mountains, the northeastern and central Gansu, the southwestern Qilian Mountains, the northwestern Zhangye, Jiuquan, Dunhuang, the northwestern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the central Ordos, Dongsheng, Wuliangsuhai, Hohhot, the northeastern Bahrain, Chifeng, the Alun River, Harbin, Sha

Black Stork is a large wading bird with no subspecies.

The black stork is a migratory bird, but most of them stay in Spain, and only a few pass through the Strait of Gibraltar to West Africa for wintering; the populations that breed in South Africa do not migrate either, but only spread around after the breeding season, mainly doing local high-altitude movements; the populations that breed in Europe almost all migrate to Africa for wintering, and a few of them that breed in Western Europe mainly pass through the Strait of Gibraltar to West Africa; the populations that breed in the Western Palearctic and Eastern Europe mainly cross the Bosporus Strait and migrate to Africa along the eastern end of the Mediterranean for wintering; the populations that breed in West Asia mainly migrate to India for wintering; and the populations that breed in eastern Russia and China mainly migrate to the south of the Yangtze River in China for wintering; when migrating, they often form small groups of more than 10 to more than 20 birds. They mainly migrate during the day. Migration flights mainly rely on the flapping of the wings to fly, and sometimes they also use thermal air currents for gliding. Migration time: In China, autumn migration mainly starts in late September to early October, and in spring, they mostly arrive at the breeding grounds in early to late March; in Europe, autumn migration mainly leaves the breeding grounds in late August to October and arrives at the breeding grounds in spring from March to May.

The black stork is solitary, often moving alone or in pairs in shallow water or swamps, and sometimes in small groups. It is active during the day, and at night, it mostly roosts in groups on the beach or sandbanks in the water. It is not good at singing, and is silent when it moves. It is alert and timid, with well-developed hearing and vision. It flies into the air when people are still far away, so it is difficult for people to approach. When taking off from the ground, it needs to run for a distance on the ground first, flap its wings vigorously, and then fly after gaining a certain amount of lift. It is good at flying and can fly forward among dense branches. When flying, the head and neck are stretched forward, and the two feet are close together and extended far behind the tail. The two wings flap slowly and powerfully, flapping 159 times per minute on average, which is slower than the 170 times per minute of the white stork. The black stork can not only flap its wings to fly, but also use the rising thermal air to soar and hover in the air like the white stork, and the head can swing left and right to observe the ground. When walking on the ground, the stride is large and the steps are light. When resting, it often stands on one or both feet on the beach or grass by the water, shrinking its neck into a hunchback shape.

The black stork mainly feeds on small fish such as crucian carp, croaker, roundhead bream, goby, white stripe, loach, loach, striped loach, sculpin, etc. It also eats other animal food such as frogs, lizards, shrimps, crickets, beetles, crayfish, crabs, snails, mollusks, crustaceans, rodents, small reptiles, chicks and insects. It usually forages in rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, farmlands, swamps and grasslands with less interference, mostly in shallow water near the water. It mainly searches for food with its eyes and can search vertically downward. It walks lightly and moves carefully, stopping and starting, and sneaking to hunt secretly. When encountering prey, it quickly stretches its head out and pecks suddenly with its sharp beak. Sometimes it also walks back and forth in one place for a long time to find food. The foraging area is usually far from the nest, mostly within 2-3 kilometers, sometimes even as far as 7-8 kilometers, especially in wasteland areas. The most frequent times for foraging are 7:00-8:00, 12:00-13:00 and 17:00-18:00. At other times, they either rest in the nest and foraging area, or hover and glide in the sky.

The breeding season of black storks is from April to July, and they nest in remote places with little human interference. The nesting environment in China can basically be divided into three types: forests, wastelands and barren mountains. Forests can be plain forests or mountain forests, but most of them are primitive forests or mature forests that are far away from humans and have little interference. Usually nests are built on cliffs on both sides of rivers in forests. In the Changbai Mountain virgin forest, nests were found on rock platforms recessed in river cliffs and on larch trees in swamps. In the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang, nests are built on poplar trees in poplar forests and on cliffs on barren mountains. The distance between nests and water bodies and other foraging areas is generally more than 2 kilometers. In barren mountains, nests are built on cliffs on both sides of dry rivers or deep trenches that are rapidly washed by rain. This kind of nesting environment can be seen in Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, and Xinjiang. Usually nests are built in pairs, and the nests are very hidden and difficult to find.

Nests begin in early March to mid-April, with a maximum distance of 2000-3000 meters between nests. If the breeding is successful and not disturbed in the same year, the nest will continue to be used in the second year, but it will be repaired and new nesting materials will be added every year, so that the nest will become larger and larger as the years of use increase. The size of the nest is measured in Xinjiang according to the following four nests: outer diameter 150-160 cm × 130-160 cm, average 146.7 cm × 153.3 cm; inner diameter 42-73 cm × 46-73 cm, average 61.7 cm × 63.0 cm; height 70-84 cm, average 78 cm; nest depth 4-7 cm, average 5.3 cm; height from the ground 4.8-7.9 meters. The nest is mainly made of dry branches, with moss, leaves, hay, bark, reeds, animal hair and debris inside, and the nest is disc-shaped. Male and female birds participate in nesting together. The male bird mainly looks for and transports nesting materials, and the female bird builds the nest and stays in the nest at night. After the nest is built, the male and female birds mate in the nest.

Eggs are laid from mid-March to late March, most in early April to mid-April, and some as late as late April to early May. One nest is produced per year, and each nest usually lays 4-5 eggs, but there are also cases where there are as few as 2 and as many as 6 eggs. The eggs are oval, white, smooth and spotless, and are 62-71 mm × 47-55 mm in size, 67.1 mm × 50 mm on average, and weigh 66-88 grams, 77.3 grams on average. After the first egg is laid, the incubation begins, and the male and female parents take turns to do it, usually 6 times a day. The male and female parents spend basically the same amount of time sitting in the nest during the day, and spend the night in the nest together, with one bird incubating the eggs and the other standing by the nest to guard. In the late incubation period, the female bird incubates the eggs all day long, and no longer rotates. The incubation period is 31 days, with a hatching rate of 61% and the incubation period is 33-34 days, with a hatching rate of 55%. The chicks are late-maturing. They are covered with white down feathers after hatching. In the first few days after hatching, because the chicks have a small appetite and the thermostatic mechanism has not yet been established, one parent usually goes out to find food while the other stays in the nest to continue incubating the eggs and warming the chicks. As all the eggs are hatched and the chicks grow up, their body temperature regulation ability is enhanced and their appetite increases, and the male and female parents go out to find food and feed the chicks at the same time. However, most of the time, one parent still stays in the nest to guard, or takes turns to go out to find food and rest. If people or other disturbers enter the nest area, the male and female parents will fly and circle over the nest for a long time until the people leave. The chicks are fed 2-3 times a day. The parents store the food they find in the food sac and bring it back to the nest, and then spit the food into the nest for the chicks to peck at themselves.

Black stork chicks are late-maturing birds that stay in the nest for a long time. They are able to fly at 70 days old and can practice short distances near the nest. After 75 days old, they can follow their parents to the river and lake banks or river floodplains to forage. They still return to the nest at night until they are 100 days old and follow their parents to move around in a larger area. The chicks are sexually mature at 3-4 years old. According to banding observations, the oldest banded bird was recovered at 18 years old. According to observations under cage conditions, the maximum lifespan can reach 31 years.

The main reasons for the decline in the number of black stork populations are deforestation, reclamation of swamp wetlands, environmental pollution and deterioration, which have reduced the source of the main food of black storks, such as fish and other small animals, human interference and illegal hunting.

Lingqiu County has a unique ecological environment and relatively rich biological resources. Historically, it is one of the main habitats, breeding and wintering grounds for black storks, and is also a concentrated distribution area for black stork populations. In June 2002, the provincial government approved the establishment of a provincial nature reserve for black storks. The China Wildlife Conservation Association awarded Lingqiu County the title of "Hometown of Chinese Black Storks". Listed in the "Red List of Endangered Species of the World Conservation Union" (IUCN) 2020 ver3.1-Least Concern (LC).  

Listed in Appendix I, Appendix II and Appendix III of the 2019 edition of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).  

Listed in China's "National Key Protected Wildlife List" (February 5, 2021) Level 1.

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