Oriental Stork
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||
| Ciconia boyciana Swinhoe, 1873 |
The Oriental Stork, Ciconia boyciana is a large, up to 115cm long, white bird with black wing feathers. It is closely related and resembles the European White Stork, of which it was formerly often treated as a subspecies. Unlike the latter species, the Oriental Stork has a red skin around its eye with whitish iris and black bill. Both sexes are similar. The female is slightly smaller than male. The young is white with an orange bill.
At one time, the Oriental Stork could be found in Japan, China, Korea and Russia. It is now extinct in Japan and South Korea. After breeding, the storks migrate to eastern China in September and returning in March.
The Oriental Stork is a solitary bird except during the breeding season. Its diets consist mainly of fish, frogs and other small animals. The female usually lays between two to six eggs.
The scientific name commemorates Robert Henry Boyce.
Due to habitat lost and overhunting, the Oriental Stork is classified as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed on Appendix I of CITES.
[edit] References
- BirdLife International (2006). Ciconia boyciana. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes a range map, a brief justification of why this species is endangered, and the criteria used
[edit] External links
- ARKive - images and movies of the Oriental Stork (Ciconia boyciana)
- BirdLife Species Factsheet
- IUCN Red List
- Red Data Book
